Hearts midfielder Prince Buaben has declared himself fit for Wednesday's clash against Motherwell and assured supporters that their backing has been crucial to the team’s perfect start to life in the Premiership.
In the opening-day win over St Johnstone, it was hard to escape the feeling that the fans helped roar the Jambos to victory after they were pegged back from 3-1 up to 3-3 by their visitors.
And at Dundee on Saturday, it was notable that most of the 2300 travelling supporters applauded their team off the park at half-time even though they trailed 1-0 and had been abject for much of the half.
Buaben insists the sound of cheers, as opposed to jeers, as the players made their way towards the tunnel – near the corner between Dens Park’s main stand and the away end – helped lift a group who knew they had underperformed in the first half.
The end result was a 2-1 win for Hearts and a share of top spot in the fledgling Premiership table.
“The supporters are such a big part of this club,†midfielder Buaben told the Evening News. “They are always supporting us and they were very good to us at Dundee. At half-time, instead of booing us they were actually applauding us off even though we hadn’t played well. That’s what you want. If the fans boo you it just brings the players’ heads down and makes it harder. But our fans cheered us when we were heading to the dressing-room and that gave us a real lift. It was amazing.
The half-time transformation at the weekend wasn’t all down to the away support, of course. It owed as much to a combination of tactical tweaks and an old-fashioned rant from head Robbie Neilson.
“In the first half we were disappointed and the gaffer wasn’t happy with us at half-time,†said Buaben. “Sometimes in football you need a bit of a push from the manager. He had a bit of a go at us in the dressing-room and made us waken up a bit.
He made it clear at half-time that he wanted to win the game and obviously we came out in the second half and did much better. It helped also that we had gone back to our usual formation.â€
Buaben has been one of the most outspoken Hearts players this summer with regard to their prospects of challenging at the very top end of the Premiership.
Now that they are in a share of the lead, however, the midfielder is in no mood to go shouting his mouth off about what they can achieve. That said, he is adamant that there is still plenty more to come from Hearts, who will tomorrow aim to make it three wins out of three at the start of a top-flight campaign for the first time since George Burley’s team took Scottish football by storm a decade ago.