Last week the mood was more of that of a defeat after Heart of Midlothian’s 2-2 draw with Livingston.
It shows how far the club has come in such a short space of time that, despite going back to the top of the Scottish Premiership, it felt like a missed opportunity against the team propping up the division.
There were parts of the game that were positive but the concession of sloppy goals and not troubling Livi at 2-2 meant a disappointing afternoon overall.
Hearts are back at Tynecastle this weekend, where they haven’t lost under Derek McInnes so far in 19 matches in all competitions this season, with the chance to go into the top-six games still top of the league.
So it will be interesting to see how the Hearts boss reacts to the result and performance last weekend.
One player who is missing from last week is Marc Leonard after his red card appeal was thrown out during the week.
Beni Baningime was partnering in midfield at the time and will be the likely replacement alongside Cammy Devlin.
Other options are Blair Spittal, although he is more suited to a three-man midfield and Oisin McEntee. The latter would mean having to select someone else at right-back.
McInnes said he is looking to recapture the form from early in the season when they flew out of the traps and that could mean returning to the back four from that period.
Stuart Findlay is back in contention and will likely start alongside Craig Halkett. That was the goalscoring centre-back pairing that started the season has a nice balance to it and Findlay’s pace has been missed.
Harry Milne could also make his return from injury, although he is still a doubt, but McInnes can at least be encouraged that he has one of his left-backs available in Stephen Kingsley.
Further forward, it will depend on which shape the Hearts boss decides to go with against Motherwell.
The Lanarkshire outfit have taken one point from their last four matches but are the only side in the Premiership that Hearts have not beaten this season.
McInnes will also want to avoid a repeat of the last time the sides met at Tynecastle and will likely pick a side to disrupt Motherwell’s pass-it-out approach.
Lawrence Shankland, Claudio Braga and Alexandros Kyziridis will likely start, but Islam Chesnokov’s place is less certain. The Kazakh had a difficult afternoon at times last week, and while he wasn’t alone, McInnes may well be conscious of the threat from Motherwell’s advanced left-back Emmanuel Longelo. The Englishman has six goals and five assists for Jens Berthel Askou’s side.
Spittal may come in to play a tucked-in role, possibly on the left, with Kyziridis moving to the right. One of the issues last week was not putting the ball in behind or into the box enough and that is certainly something that you get from Spittal.
