‘This wasn’t what I expected’ – Hearts defender Craig Halkett on why his dream move from Livingston hasn’t gone to plan

The stewing that will be going on at Hearts right now will be particularly acute. The coronavirus pandemic that has resulted in the indefinite suspension of Scottish football means the Tynecastle club have to countenance the possibility that their miserable performances this season may already have relegated them – the scenario if the campaign cannot resume and current standings are used to determine the composition of the four leagues for next season.
There haven't been many games for Craig Halkett to cheer following his move from Livingston to Hearts. Picture: Alan Rennie/SNSThere haven't been many games for Craig Halkett to cheer following his move from Livingston to Hearts. Picture: Alan Rennie/SNS
There haven't been many games for Craig Halkett to cheer following his move from Livingston to Hearts. Picture: Alan Rennie/SNS

For centre-back Craig Halkett, the stewing may be more profound than most. The 24-year-old thought he was moving onwards and upwards in swapping Livingston for the Gorgie club. Instead, he has gone downwards and backwards, with the West Lothian side having nestled among the leading teams in the Premiership to sit fifth as Hearts have bumped along the bottom.

Speaking before the season was shut down by the SFA/SPFL joint response group on Friday, Halkett acknowledged an on-pitch turn of events this season he could never have anticipated – even as he stressed Livingston’s ability to prosper on the back of his departure, and the loss of other pivotal performers Declan Gallagher and Liam Kelly, is no shock to him.

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“This wasn’t what I expected at all,” he said of Hearts’ travails, encapsulated by the dire display that brought a 1-0 defeat at St Mirren in midweek. “I was so happy to be joining Hearts as it’s a massive club. And of course I didn’t expect to be where we are now. We just have to deal with it and knuckle down and try to get out of it.

“I can’t say I’m surprised [by what’s happened at Livingston] as I know how hard everyone works there behind the scenes. The recruitment is really good. They lost a few of us last summer but the work they’ve done since has been amazing. They’ve kicked on again but I’m not surprised to see where they are in the table. It’s all down to the work done behind the scenes and the training they do. There’s a togetherness about the team and they seem to do it every year.”

Livingston are everything that Hearts aren’t. And, in the increasingly unlikely event that there is a means to play out the campaign towards the summer, Halkett appreciates that they must develop similar battling traits – which seemed in place in the wins over Rangers and Hibernian, only to disappear utterly in Paisley. “Yeah that’s it,” said the 24-year-old. “We need to show that fight, that dig and that determination. All the boys in there know where we are and how much of a fight it’s going to be. We are where we are because of poor performances like the other night. But we’ve got to stay confident and keep backing ourselves.”

For all that Livingston are one of Scotland’s leading clubs now, Halkett experienced the fall prior to the current rise, which followed his release from Rangers where he came through the youth ranks. He dreads going through a similar situation at Tynecastle.

“In that first six months after I left Rangers I ended up getting relegated from the Championship with Livingston [in 2015-16]. So I’ve been in this situation before when you’re at the bottom of the league and fighting. That obviously didn’t go the way I wanted it to go. So I’m going to do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t go that way again.

“It was horrible when that happened. I had just left the club I’d been with for a lot of years and didn’t know where my career was going. The club didn’t know if they were going to stay full-time so that was a massive thing in the back of my mind. So I know that I don’t want to feel like that again.”