JJ has got Hearts sticking together

Hearts are thriving in the upper echelons of the SPL thanks to the togetherness instilled by Jim Jefferies and his coaching staff. Stevenson is playing a peripheral role having started the club's last three matches as substitute, but that does not prevent him appreciating the camaraderie.

"That's maybe something Hearts have struggled with over the years, team spirit," said the 26-year-old. "We've got people pulling in the right direction now. It's about me being part of it. I've come from a smaller club to a big team and I'm happy to be part of a good squad.

"Team spirit takes you a long, long way. With the manager and Billy Brown installing that, every player knows it's part of things. If you look at Rangers, Walter Smith has been one of their best ever managers. He knows what it takes to get a Rangers team doing well.

"Our manager belongs at Hearts. He's a Hearts fan, the fans love him and every single player gets on well with him. There's just a great togetherness which is getting better and better every day.

"There will be ups and downs throughout the season but that's when the team spirit comes into it. When there were ups and downs at Hearts in previous seasons, looking from the outside in, that's when things go worse because maybe people were going in different directions. Now, we're totally together."

Nine months have passed since Jefferies and Brown replaced Csaba Laszlo and Werner Burger. Much of that time has been spent restructuring the squad and building the kind of convivial atmosphere which Stevenson believes should serve Hearts well in future.

"Everybody is gelling together. It takes time for that," he continued. "The manager came in and had to get his own players in and put his own stamp on things. There is good team spirit and everybody knows where we want to go.

"We know what the team is capable of and what each other is capable of. We're all pushing in the right direction, that's the major thing. Everybody's in it together instead of one pulling one way and one pulling another way. That's down to the manager and Billy installing that.

"I'm obviously frustrated because sitting on the bench isn't where you want to be. It's a long week when you know you're going to be sitting on the bench. Having said that, the player who is playing in front of me (Rudi Skacel] is banging in hat-tricks, so I can't say anything at the moment. I need to work hard to get back into the team.

"I've said before it's not about Ryan Stevenson, Rudi Skacel, Kevin Kyle or any one player. It's about the squad."I'm sure that, over the season, I'll be called upon to come in and do a job.

"The manager has already spoken to me about it. He's told me just to keep my head up. Any player knows that, when a team is winning, you can't really change it. I'm happy if we're winning because, at the end of the day, it's about Hearts doing well. It's much bigger than one player."

After two successive victories against Aberdeen and St Mirren, with two clean sheets recorded in the process, Hearts welcome Jefferies' former club Kilmarnock to Tynecastle on Sunday. For Stevenson, a former Ayr United player, it is a match from which three points are essential.

"If we're going to do well this season, these are the games we need to be winning at Tynecastle. It's very important we pick up points against St Mirren and Kilmarnock, so Sunday is a massive game now.

"We've been playing well so it was a big thing getting three points against St Mirren. I didn't actually realise it had been so long since we'd won at home. Rangers and Celtic are a long way ahead of us but we want to try and bridge that gap. We want to try and catch Motherwell. We've had two great results so we go into Sunday full of confidence."

Much of that, of course, is down to the feel-good factor currently coursing through the corridors of Riccarton.