Jorge Grant refuses to chap Hearts manager door but hopes actions will do the talking ahead of Hampden cup outing

He scored in the previous round of the Viaplay Cup and Jorge Grant also laid on the winning goal on Wednesday night to give Hearts a lift following three league games without a win.

But don’t expect the midfielder to be subtly reminding manager Steven Naismith of those contributions, in the hope of cementing a place in the starting line up at Hampden this weekend. That isn’t the reserved Englishman’s style. While there are more gallus team-mates who might be tempted to tout their achievements, Grant is simply hoping that he gets the nod.

“I won’t be saying anything, no no,” he said as thoughts turned to Sunday’s trip to the national stadium for the second of the cup semi-finals. “Obviously it’s a great stadium and something I really want to do is start the game but that’s down to the gaffer.”

He would also love to play a pivotal role in the outcome, weighing in with another cup goal or another quality assist.

Hearts' Jorge Grant (front) celebrates with goalscorer Kenneth Vargas after providing the assist as the Costa Rican striker opened his acccount against Livingston. Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group

“That would be nice - if I can pop up with a goal which helps us win the game then that’s something I’d love to do. It’s a one-off game - it’s a semi-final. It’s split with the fans especially as well so it’s going to be a big game for us and we all know what it means to the club so we will all be giving it 100 per cent.”

A second half substitute as Hearts finally breakthrough Livingston’s doggedly disciplined defensive display midweek, he played the telling cross in for Kenneth Vargas to bury the 79th minute winner and collect his first goal for the club.

“It’s tough when a team does sit in like that. You have to work the ball side to side and sometimes that’s not enjoyable to watch. But it’s about making those spaces behind for the goal, and I felt we did that well.

“We sort of knew with our shape that we’d be able to push them back, it was about being patient. We created enough chances to be scoring earlier than that but obviously Kenny was lurking at the back as I stuck my ball across,” said Grant as he lifted the lid on the 21-year-old Costa Rican striker.

“I knew if I could get out of my feet and get it across the box hopefully someone’s there. It’s a good ball but he’s got to be there to score it. He’s a great lad and obviously being far from his family and stuff like that, it can be hard. But he’s a really nice lad and we’re all delighted he's got his first one. His English is actually alright. He loves talking about Fifa which gets the boys going so he fits in really well with us.”

But having rediscovered their winning form, Grant is hoping the mood will be positive as the head into the semi final against Rangers.

“We played them last weekend, we know sort of what they're about. We had a good first half, up until about 60 minutes and then they started to get on top of us so we know what they’re about. Obviously it was important to get the win off the back of losing the way we did on Sunday. That gives us confidence going into the weekend.”