Gary Mackay: Calum has made claim to call the shots this season

ALL the talk over the past week or so had revolved around our two new strikers but I was delighted to see another of our forwards stealing a bit of the limelight on Saturday.

It really was wonderful for Calum Elliot to get off the mark so early in the season.

He's had a really tough time of it over the past few years, but it was great that, despite all the excitement from supporters about Kevin Kyle and Stephen Elliott coming in, he was the one that got the goal.

I've known Calum since he was an eight or nine-year-old lad playing for Oxgangs Primary School and then Firhill High School. Like all players he has things he can improve on, but he is still a young professional.

Good and bad performances are part and parcel of being a footballer, but the important thing about Calum is that no matter how hard things are, he never hides or shirks from anything. Things might not be happening for him, but he'll always make himself available for the ball and do his bit to help the team. That's a quality that managers and team-mates really appreciate in a player.

Although it was only enough to earn Hearts one point, Calum's goal could prove to be massive for him personally. He will be bursting with confidence having got himself off the mark so early in the season. Every striker longs to get off and running early on.

In the same way managers want to get their first victory in the first game of the season, strikers always want to get their first goal in the first game of the campaign. It could just be the catalyst he needs to finally start fulfilling his potential.

While many people may see Calum being pushed out of the team by the new boys, their arrival may actually benefit him if he can force his way in and get the chance to play alongside an established striker like Kyle or Stephen Elliott. He's never really had the chance to play with a regular partner since breaking into the side, so that might be just what he needs.

We also have Gary Glen and David Obua out injured so, when they are fit again, all of a sudden we will find ourselves with a decent pool of strikers.

While Calum maybe hasn't progressed as quickly as we might have hoped, a player he came through the ranks with just keeps on better.

Lee Wallace is much the same age as Calum but I think Lee is the player that any young up-and-coming player at Hearts should try and follow. His progression over the past few years has been nothing short of outstanding. He continues to improve as a player and whether Hearts can keep a hold of him beyond this transfer window remains to be seen because he's kicking on out of sight for me. His performance against St Johnstone suggests he's picking up where he left off last term.

While those two homegrown lads enjoyed positive displays on Saturday, it was disappointing that we dropped two points on the back of going in front and then St Johnstone finishing the game with ten men. But I think we have to acknowledge that St Johnstone are a team we failed to beat at all last season and Derek McInnes is one of the best up-and-coming managers in Britain at the moment, so it's certainly not a result worth panicking over, especially considering it appears that a new structure finally appears to be being put in place at the football club.

Looking ahead to the Hamilton game this weekend, we've now got another week for the two new strikers to get a bit more training under their belts and we also know that we have another striker in Elliot, who has already found his goalscoring touch. As for my hopes for the season, I'd love to see us make an impact in the cup competitions. I think every Hearts fan wants to get to a cup final because we've not had a big day out for a few years now. The supporters love semis and finals at Hampden. I also want to see a bit more consistency in the league and some good, attacking football which ensures people keep coming to Tynecastle in their numbers. For that to happen, perhaps the most important thing is that people who claim to have - but don't actually have - the knowledge of how to run the football side of a football club keep their nose out of the football department's business.

Fond farewells to duo

I WAS saddened to see two respected members of staff leave Hearts over the summer and would like to wish Campbell Ogilvie and John Boag well in their new roles at the SFA and our city rivals respectively.

It's always disappointing when you lose two people of that quality and also a little bit worrying.