Frankie McAvoy hails 'pleasing' Hearts injury returns as he shares transfer hope after 'excellent' Marbella camp

Frankie McAvoy hailed the return of Liam Boyce and Beni Baningime as Hearts rounded their pre-season training trip to Marbella with a 1-0 friendly defeat to Plymouth.

The duo were brought on for the final 15 minutes against the Pilgrims marking the first action in 15 months for Baningime and 11 months for Boyce. A Freddie Issaka strike after 19 minutes was the difference as the newly-promoted Championship side, who had former Rangers striker Ryan Hardie in their line-up, took the spoils.

But McAvoy, in his first game as head coach, said: He said: “The most pleasing thing was seeing Boycey and Beni back. And a lot of the younger boys got a good run out as well, which was good. It’s just getting more minutes. The games are coming thick and fast, we have Wigan and Fleetwood next week. And we just need to keep working them hard on the training field.

“I think the camp has been excellent, to be honest. We hope we can add a few players as the weeks progress but overall we have got to be generally pleased. We know how we want to play and we’ll get better.”

Hearts were under the cosh early doors and Zander Clark had already pulled off two good saves to deny Issaka and Caleb Roberts before the Pilgrims surged ahead in the 19th minute. The impressive Issaka cut in off the left and drilled a low strike into the bottom corner from 20 yards.

Lawrence Shankland blazed over then failed to connect with Andy Halliday’s cutback at the Jambos pressed for a first half leveller. But with the heat taking it’s toll a ream of half time subs saw youngsters Harry Stone, Luke Rathie, Callum Flatman, Callum Sandilands and Aiden Denholm thrown on to join their B team mates Connor Smith and Finlay Pollock who had started the match.

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