Danny Wilson urges Hearts players to learn from pain

SOMETIMES players simply want to put bad games behind them. Shrug them off as the proverbial bad day at the office, and move on.
Danny Wilson in action for Hearts. Picture: SNSDanny Wilson in action for Hearts. Picture: SNS
Danny Wilson in action for Hearts. Picture: SNS

After another demoralising defeat, it would be understandable if Danny Wilson had felt that way on Saturday. Instead, the Hearts captain insisted that he and his team-mates could not afford to ignore the way they had played in their 2-0 loss at Kilmarnock, and had to face up to the flaws in their play to give themselves the best chance of improving.

“I don’t think we should just forget about it,” he said. “I think we should try and remember it so we don’t play that badly again. People have built up the last couple of games against St Mirren and Kilmarnock and we haven’t delivered, which is really disappointing. If you look now, we’re in the same position we were at the start of the season. It’s not ideal, but it could be worse. It’s hard for the younger ones. In a normal situation, you want to bring them into a winning team, but we are where we are and need to get on with it.

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“They are great. They apply themselves really well and it’s just we have been found wanting in the past couple of games as a collective group. The youngsters are first-team players now. We don’t get on their backs and we’re in this together. We’ve had a couple of bad results and it’s not looking pretty, but a couple of good results can have people talking again about how talented they are.”

At least Hearts now have the ideal game in which to try to put those bad results behind them, and Wednesday’s visit to Easter Road for the quarter-final of the League Cup could allow them to play without the pressure that has been there in recent Premiership matches.

“We have a big week ahead of us and it’s a great game to have,” Wilson continued. “Everyone ups their game for a derby, as they’re extra special. If we can get a result against Hibs, it might just provide a springboard. We beat them at Tynecastle and went on a mini-run afterwards, so I hope we can do the same again. Some of our better performances have come in cup games this season.

“Hibs are under pressure just like us. It’s also a derby for them, and they’re at home, so that brings its own pressures. We wanted to go there full of confidence after a good result at Rugby Park, but we didn’t get it and now we need to give the fans who went down there a result on Wednesday.”