I felt bad watching Hearts on Saturday at home to Inverness.
It was better from the Jambos – the goals were good and the boys did well.
But still in the back of my mind was, “Well done, they’ve beaten Inverness who are a half-decent side... but they should be beating them”.
It’s easy enough doing it in the last home game of the season when you’re picking up the trophy and the sun is out. Like the Alloa game, I’m not reading too much into it.
It was a good result and they have done everything they’ve had to do this year. For me, though, there are still massive question marks over next year.
It was great to finally see something from Gary Mackay-Steven but he should be doing that week in, week out – especially in the Championship.
He should be affecting games a lot more than he has been.
You can’t deny he has quality and he can showcase that in the Premiership.
It’s now about him going away over the summer, getting himself fit and raring to go.
He has come back over from America and sometimes it can take six months or so to bed back in while there could be stuff off the park that he has to settle into.
But you expect to see performances like Saturday’s on a more regular basis.
There are some Hearts players I’ve no doubt are good enough for next season.
Look at the spine of their team. They have Craig Gordon in goal who is going to win you points. That’s a fact.
If you can keep John Souttar fit, then that’s a massive plus. Michael Smith, at right-back, is tried and tested and an international player.
Once crowds are back in, these boys have played in plenty of big games before and are more than capable of playing at that level at the top end of the Premiership.
I like Aaron McEneff. He looks decent and after a good pre-season I’m looking forward to seeing more of him against better players.
He looks like someone who can get the crowd on his side. He’s box to box and energetic. Stevie Naismith does what Stevie Naismith does, so it’s a matter of keeping him as fit as possible. You’d be expecting a lot of Jamie Walker next season.
He’s played in fits and starts this one and is the same as Mackay-Steven in that he needs to go away and have a look at this campaign.
They all do, to be honest, and say, “That wasn’t good enough”, then have a look at themselves before they have a look at anybody else.
They’ve got an opportunity to play in the Premiership for Hearts, which will be amazing, They’ll have crowds back in at some point and they’ll want to go and prove everybody wrong.
I want them to come back and prove people like me, who are giving them pelters, wrong.
I want them to come back and say, “I’m going to show them”, ram it right down my throat and prove they can finish fourth in the league.
It’s a big test and a big summer for them. Go away, get as fit as you can and prove people like me wrong.
I see that Naisy has started helping out with the Under-18s and that he’ll have a think about whether he keeps playing next year.
The 34-year-old has plenty left to offer. He may not start as many games but from the bench he can still contribute.
He’s played a lot of games over his time and he’s an all-action player, so his body might not be feeling that great. It comes to us all.
If I was manager, though, I’d be doing all I could to even have him about the boys training every day and giving advice.
There will be times when they struggle next season and they’ll need his experience in the team. That’s a given.
He’s played at the top end of the game in the UK, so I’d try to keep him going next year.
Hopefully he can lift more silverware and that it’s more enjoyable than the “celebration” we saw at Tynecastle on Saturday when they got their hands on the league trophy.
It was a bit uncomfortable and that was down to the situation. Some of the fans wanted them to boycott it and the players knew that it was something they were expected to win. But they had to lift it.
