New dad Jake Mulraney reveals he was ill-prepared for Hearts-Kilmarnock game

Jake Mulraney says he will be better prepared to face Rangers this weekend. Picture: Paul Devlin/SNS

Mulraney and partner Aoife McDonagh welcomed baby Ella into the world on 2 October, only three days before the 1-0 defeat by Kilmarnock that led to manager Craig Levein taking the rare step of publicly haranguing his players.

Mulraney admits sleep  deprivation was a factor in his lacklustre performance.

However, two weeks on and loaded with advice from some team-mates, including a tongue-in-cheek suggestion to catch up on some sleep in his car after training, Mulraney believes he will be better prepared to tackle Rangers tomorrow.

“I love it,” the Dubliner said of fatherhood. “People told me it’d be hard but I didn’t know it would be this hard. Honestly I love it so much – it’s a blessing.

“But I need to find that balance now. In the first few days, it was just like baby, baby, baby. I just need to find that balance now between baby, football, preparation and faith.

“It’s getting better now but at the start it was just baby, baby, baby. To be honest, it was my own fault. I didn’t prepare right at all for the last game against Kilmarnock. I thought I could get away with it.

“I’ve never been in this situation before so I didn’t realise properly how much sleep I needed before games. The baby came on the Wednesday and I was up all night Wednesday and Thursday.

“I got a little bit more sleep on the Friday before the game but it wasn’t ideal in terms of my prep and I’ve learned from that because I felt the effects of it during the game.”

For someone who was  previously used to an uninterrupted nine-hour kip, Mulraney is open to guidance from his team-mates over how to get the work-life balance right.

“Sleeping in the car after training was suggested to me,” laughed Mulraney.  “Steven MacLean said that.

“I’m picking up tips everywhere from the boys. One great tip was to sleep when they sleep. I didn’t do that. I was up still half asleep myself, but now when she sleeps I’ll get a nap in, so it’s all good.

“I’ll sleep in a different room before the game, we’ve got a good structure now.

“The first week was quite hard and now we’re starting to get into a routine so it’s a bit easier.”