Stephen Kingsley admits the Jambos' full focus is now on finishing the season as strongly as possible.
The defender made his return from injury in last weekend’s Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden and explained that while it was nice to get back on the pitch on a personal level, he’d have preferred to be returning in more positive circumstances for the group.
Speaking to the media at the pre-match press conference, Kingsley said:
“It was difficult, obviously [being out injured]. It's been a hard five, six months for a few of the boys that have been out, long-term injuries. I’m delighted to be back, obviously, but I'd probably prefer different circumstances, but that's football. We've got a few games now to press on and finish the season positively, so that's our focus.
“The disappointment of missing out in the top six hit hard. You look below you and you realise that these are big games coming up. There's certainly no time to take your foot off the gas, you need to focus and be ready for what's coming up. The first game is obviously tomorrow.
“We know it's a big game, we know it's going to be a tough game, we know what they're like. Not everyone's right at it and as I said, there's obviously a couple of days where you need to get over the semi-final loss, but then it's right back on it and we have made sure all week that our sole focus is on tomorrow.”
“There's no other way of going about it. We can't be down or disappointed about it now. We need to just focus on Dundee tomorrow and try to finish off the season properly and as professionally as we can.”
On tomorrow’s visitors Dundee, Kingsley added:
“Every time we play Dundee; it’s a difficult game. Whether that's at home or away. Obviously, I watched the last game that we played away. We've done very, very well.
“We scored at vital times in the game, I think, which is important as well. It's going to be the same tomorrow. If we make it difficult on ourselves, we know that we're going to be in for a tough afternoon.
As I said, they've got their strengths and their challenges that they pose against us, so we need to be ready for it. Hopefully, as I said, we can be right at it right from the first whistle and take our chances when they come and be solid at the back.”
You can watch Stephen’s interview in full on Hearts TV.
