Hearts interim manager Jon Daly believes Saturday’s performance in the 1-0 win over Kilmarnock showed that his squad have the characteristics they need to succeed this season. Isma Concalves' early first-half goal proved to be the difference between the two sides at Rugby Park, and Daly was pleased in the manner which his side went about their business. He said: "We knew it would be a difficult place to come. I know Lee McCulloch quite well and I know the type of character that he is and the type of players that he brought in, I’ve been quite impressed with. We knew that is was going to be a difficult game. We hadn’t won here since April 2013 so it shows you how difficult it is to come here and get three points. The fact that we did it in the manner that we did show a lot of people that the players have got the characteristics that they’ve probably been questioned about. The desire, the workrate, the effort, it shows everyone that they have that in their locker and they can do that."
It was the visitors who passed up Saturday's best chances, and Daly pointed to the relatively quiet afternoon Jack Hamilton had as an indication that the better team won. He want on: "I think that was a deserved win. I thought we probably had the best chances of the game. Jamie MacDonald came out and knicks it off Isma in the first half, Laff has a good one that he probably miskicks and you probably expect him to do better, and then the one where Don goes through and hits it over the bar. I don’t think Jack had an awful lot to do during the game, I thought he dealt with their long shots quite well, his handling was really good and his distribution was really good again today. The one time we really needed him was when they managed to cut us open and he made a fantastic double save, that’ll do him the world of good and hopefully give his confidence a big boost."
