Nathaniel Atkinson explains the long-term Hearts coaching plan to develop him into a top right-back

Since arriving in January from Melbourne City, his professional growth has followed a steep upward trajectory more through default than intention. Hearts intended to ease him gradually into Scottish football but injury to Michael Smith, their established right-back, forced a greater reliance on the new lad.

He has responded well. Sixteen games, eight clean sheets, one goal, a few assists and an international debut for his country. Moving to Edinburgh has taken Atkinson’s career to new heights and he may yet end the campaign with a Scottish Cup winner’s medal. This is only the start.

“I feel it’s going well,” says Atkinson, speaking exclusively to the Evening News. “I took a bit of time to adjust to a different football culture. I feel I’m getting better every game. I wanted to work on my defensive attributes and I believe I’ve done that. Now I can look at what I like doing best, which is getting forward and helping with goals.

“It’s a dream come true to play for your country and coming here was definitely going to put my name forward a lot more. It’s a more competitive league in Europe, and now that we’ve got ourselves into European competition it’s only going to give me the best experience to help the Socceroos if I’m selected.”

It certainly helps when your new manager was a distinguished right-back. Robbie Neilson’s area of expertise is the very position Atkinson now occupies. The player is even wearing the No.12 squad number which belonged to Neilson during the 2004/05 campaign.

“He has obviously given me a lot of pointers, things like positioning your body when we don’t have the ball,” explains Atkinson. “That’s one of the main aspects of defensive shape and then he lets me be a lot more free going forward. That’s