Hearts: The good, the bad .. and the beautiful game

Take a B&Q Cup final, for instance, when they were at Falkirk, Brown sensing it was time for Jefferies to put on his "bad cop" hat when their side were trailing at the break after a shocking first-half performance.

In blistering the paint on the walls of the Fir Park dressing-room, Jefferies decided one player in particular needed a boot up the backside and he gave him it, not to mention a right earful.

It had the desired effect, the player in question going out in the second-half and providing the response both Jefferies and Brown were looking for as he helped the Bairns turn things around to get their hands on the trophy.

It was a classic case of a few home truths having to be hammered home and no-one knew that better than the player, who, to his credit, headed straight over to his manager after the full-time whistle and thanked him for being a "bad cop" that day.

Brown, on the other hand, had always been perceived as the "good cop", the man more likely to put an arm around a player when the occasion arose and coax the best out of them through a quiet word as opposed to a double-barrelled blast.

So, as Hearts enjoy an amazing six-game winning run that has seen them close to within three points of Celtic in second place in the Clydesdale Bank SPL, is the old routine still intact?

Brown got the opportunity to answer that question when he filled in for Jefferies at his pre-match press conference at Riccarton after the latest blast of winter left the manager stuck on the southern side of Soutra for a spell as he made the daily journey from his home in Lauder.

"I think we can both have our moments and whatever it is we do has worked okay," said the man who has been Jefferies' No.?2 from the day he started out at Berwick Rangers, the pair having grown up together as fellow pupils at Musselburgh Grammar.

"I always thought I was the good cop but I listen to some of the players now and they sometimes say I'm the bad cop!

"I can't understand that at all really, though my wife might not agree!"

What Brown can understand is what the current crop of Hearts players – Ruben Palazuelos added his name to a long list after the midweek win at Motherwell – have been saying about the management team at Tynecastle being good at getting the best out of the people they work with.

"One of most important things about running a football team is knowing a player," he added.

"People think they can come into the game and change things by coaching. But you've got to know what ability that player has and I think Jim and I are both good at that.

"We know what players can do. We don't ask them to do what they can't do and Ruben Palazuelos is a prime example of someone who has adapted to a position that is foreign to him. I don't think there was any doubt the other night that he was the best player on the park.

"We know how to keep training bubbly, keep spirits up, especially the ones that aren't playing. The other night, for example, two players who hadn't been playing came into the team.

"You have to include everyone. We have been doing it a long time and we know how to handle the situation. We just hope we can continue in the same vein. The whole club is on a high at the moment and we just need to try and keep it going.

"We give players confidence. We don't over elaborate with players. We can see what they can do and send them out and let them do it."

At the moment, those Hearts players are doing it very well indeed and, according to Brown, the celebrations captured by a Sky TV camera in the dressing room after the win at Fir Park reflected perfectly how much the mood in the camp has changed since he and Jefferies arrived back at the Tynecastle club for a second spell.

"The win over Motherwell was a big one for us," said the Hearts assistant manager. "I remember when we first came back and got our first win yet everyone was sitting in the dressing-room at Tynecastle as though it didn't matter. But it does matter now, as the cameras showed the other night. I didn't know there was a camera in the dressing-room the other night but the scenes were great. There's a tremendous team spirit here. Everyone is pulling together and, of course, winning makes a difference."

Tomorrow Hearts welcome Inverness Caledonian Thistle to Tynecastle, where a win would see the Gorgie outfit open up a nine-point gap on their fourth-placed opponents.

"A lot of hard work, a lot of good players and a wee bit of luck – that has been our recipe for success," noted Brown.

"The team is playing well and the team is defending well. But most of all we have a cutting edge that makes us dangerous – it looks as though we can score in any game against any team.

"But it's a big hurdle we've got to climb on Saturday. We are playing a team that hasn't been beaten away from home since last November so it is a very difficult game for us.

"We are playing with a lot of confidence but so are Inverness. They've got a phenomenal away record. They were the best side in the first half against Rangers last Saturday and will be coming down here with nothing to lose as they are in a really good position in the league.

"They are very dangerous opposition. We will have to play as well as we have been playing as we aren't playing mugs here. We are playing a good, well-organised team with players on top form at the moment."

Brown, who may have spent the majority of his time working with Jefferies in the shadows but is just as comfortable in front of the TV cameras and microphones as the man with his name on the manager's door, was asked if Hearts were under any pressure due to the head of steam they had built up.

"Pressure is when you are getting beat and struggling for results," he replied. "You don't know what team to play and players' form is a bit dubious.

"Things are going well at the moment and let me tell you there's less pressure when it is going well than when it is going poorly. I don't think there's a lot of pressure on us just now."...