Despite losing the game 1-0 Hearts Ian Cathro believes his players will have learnt a lot out of their mid-week pre-season game St Patrick’s Athletic as their hosts are already halfway through their domestic season. The game at Richmond Park was disrupted with wholesale changes at half-time as is the norm with pre-season games, and the manager saw it as the prefect exercise to help build up his squad’s fitness. Cathro said: "It was a really worthwhile workout. We got our conditioning up and put in a lot running, which we wanted to do. We played against a team that’s pretty much in the full flow of their season so it’s a really good match, I’m really pleased with the game as an exercise for us. So it’s been positive."
Any travelling fans would have had the opportunity to see new signing Kyle Lafferty in a Hearts shirt for the first time as he appeared as a second-half substitute and showed a real desire to get on the ball in the final third. Cathro revealed that although he’s glad to have been able to play the Northern Irish international, he’s in no rush to throw him in at the deep end at this stage of pre-season. The manager went on: "It was important that Kyle got minutes. He’s not had anywhere near as many training sessions as everyone else so we’re just going gradually with that. But it was good for him to get onto the pitch and we’ll go step by step to build him up."
There was also the first appearance of the pre-season of Jamie Walker, who missed last week’s win over Livingston through injury. The winger played 45 minutes and impressed the head coach, despite being behind the group in terms of fitness. Cathro commented: "He missed a couple of days training when we were probably doing some of our harder work so he’s still maybe a little bit behind the group. I think you saw a good session from him there and he put some work in there as well, so it’s good for him."
