Jim Jefferies Post Hearts

21/07/12: Jim Jefferies preparations for the new season have been hampered a lot:-

Jim Jefferies preparations for the new season have been hampered a lot:-

"There have been a lot of changes and for these lads it is only their second game. The game at Berwick was postponed and this is what it is going to be like for the next couple of games - just finding out about them, how they play, who can play where. There have been a lot of changes in the two games but we were playing against a side with two or three games under their belt. It was a major improvement from how we played in midweek.

"We have not done much in terms of bedding the team in; you cannot do that until you know who is your strongest eleven you are going to go with. Everybody is out there trying to impress me and want to be in that starting line up. We have a cup tie next week but after that we will have two friendlies and that will help to bring us on even better."

The two games have seen Jim run his eye over several trialists, he explained where he was with the ones that were on show against Hearts:-

"Graeme Smith has come in because Paul Gallacher has been injured. Paul has been injured and he has a big test on Thursday to step up his training. After the Ramsden Cup tie I think he could play a part in the two friendlies. Billy Thomson at Kilmarnock gave me the tip off that Graeme Smith was training at Kilmarnock and he did really well today, he had some really good stops.

"It is too early to say because I have to explain the situation if he wants to come in and compete with Paul Gallacher. There might be a stage where he wants to play regular and you cannot blame him for that. I have to explain that Paul is our first choice and he would be in there competing if we can afford to get him. We certainly need another goalkeeper because we had another lad who I didn't put on today.

"My intentions were to play him but Hearts were taking a wee grip of the game and I didn't want to throw him in there. I will give him a run on Tuesday (against Berwick Rangers). He is a Slovakian keeper, only 21, who has been training with us and he is looking OK as well. It is probably a battle between the two of them to see who gets the chance to come in."

The Manager revealed that trialist left back in the second half was Stephen Jordan whose contract at Rochdale has expired. The player has made a considerable number of appearances at Manchester City and at Burnley:-

"We were tipped off that he was available. He was happy to come up from Rochdale; he only arrived on Thursday night. He trained with us yesterday but he has not done as much training as the rest because they were not long back at Rochdale. They didn't take him away with them (to Austria), I would have liked to have started him but we saw him in training yesterday and agreed that he still had a wee bit to find. We put him in once the game had calmed down a bit and I thought he did quite well.

Stephen Jordan

"Stephen Husband came up for a game last year but was a stone overweight and I said come back when you have lost it. He did that, all credit to him and he has worked really hard in training. He had a plaster on but we managed to get a screw inserted in a lighter one and I thought he showed up quite well today until he tired a bit because he has been a long time out.

"There were one or two named as trialists today but was just because they are out of contract - Kevin Kyle and Liam Buchanan, we know what they can do - but were there only because they had not signed any contract."

The Manager feels that his team is catching up big time with teams that are further ahead in their preparations for the forthcoming season:-

"We had to put everything on hold because we brought in two or three younger players from the lower divisions to develop in the First Division. It would have been a big step up had we gone into the Premier League but to offset that we would have had to go and sign experienced players because we would have needed better than what we might have gone with in the First Division. We would have needed to help those young boys take that step further up if it had happened.

"What we have done now is lose players who have been hanging on until they couldn't hang on any longer because it might be aye or it might be no for them. When you go back to them you find that they have signed somewhere else. What they should do is give us another month to sign players because we have been hampered by not being able to do that because we didn't know which division we were going to be in."

Hearts Manager John McGlynn described the match as a good work out:-

"It was a 2-0 victory, it could have been more maybe - we had opportunities to score more goals. I was happy that we maintained a clean sheet, Jamie MacDonald had to be smartly off his line to the edge of the box early in the game and he spread himself very well. Other than that he had one save at the back stick late in the game."

McGlynn passed comment on one of the Dunfermline trialists who was at Hearts at one stage:-

"Stephen Husband is a player who a number of coaches at Hearts say that he has potential. He is certainly a skilful player but there is more to it than just on the ball and I think that was an aspect that maybe he had to do a bit better."