Steven Naismith says that Hearts can draw on past European experience as the Jambos gear up for the first leg of their UEFA Europa League play-off meeting with Viktoria Plzen.
The men in maroon travelled to Czechia today, with a spot in the group stages of the Europa League up for grabs.
Despite a difficult start to the season that saw an early exit from the Premier Sports Cup, Naismith is hopeful of picking up a first win, and European progression, if the Jambos can find the winning formula again.
“It was frustrating to go out like we did because we’ve got a real desire to be successful. We’ve got a schedule ahead that’s unforgiving, so we don’t have much time to dwell on things,” he told the media ahead of the game.
“We spoke about things on Sunday then it was full focus on tomorrow night’s game. As players and staff, if you can’t get up for games like tomorrow night then you shouldn’t be at the club.
“We’ve got the group stages no matter what, but it would be a great achievement to make the Europa League. Our mentality is one where we want to perform in the best tournaments that we can.
“We can draw on the experience last season against Rosenborg, it’s a similar set up: away first, then home, and we did well despite losing the first leg and came back to win it.
“We didn’t panic, we stuck to what we believed, and here we are a year later in a similar situation. We have that bit more experience and I believe we can do it.
“We’ll need to defend better than we have in the last two games but we’re a good team coming up against a good team and I think it will be an entertaining game of football.”
Viktoria Plzen are five games into their own domestic campaign and have picked up four wins to sit second in the table – conceding just one goal in the process.
Naismith had warm words for our Czech counterparts and said the Jambos need to fire on all cylinders to get a positive result in the first act of this tie.
“Their record this season in the short-term is good because they haven’t conceded too many goals but their consistency in European competition tells you everything you need to know about them,” he added.
“They can cause us problems and that’s why it key to defend better. If we hit the right levels of energy and desire, then I’m hopeful that we can come out of the tie with the win.”
Finally, the boss was able to provide a positive update on the fitness of defender Frankie Kent, with Colombian full-back Andres Salazar needing to wait to make his bow in maroon.
“Frankie Kent is fine. Everyone that’s travelled is fit,” he explained.
“The only exception is Beni Baningime and Calem Nieuwenhof, whilst Andres is just waiting for some documentation before he can join us on these trips.”
