Steven Naismith awaits Hearts head coach appointment and promises brassed off fans things will be different

Steven Naismith promised brassed-off Hearts fans they’ll see a different Jambos side after the international break - as he waits to be officially installed as head coach.

The technical director is expected to replace Frankie McAvoy as now the Tynecastle side are out of Europe. But before then he was faced with furious boos from the home support after a 1-0 loss to Motherwell made it four defeats in a row. It leaves Hearts sitting eighth on four points from four games and follows home and away defeats to PAOK in Europe as well as last weekend’s dismal defeat at Dundee.

But Naismith - who said his own position would become more clear in the coming week - said: “The fans will be unhappy because they have seen something that has been consistent the last few league games. But now we have this period we can continue to work to refresh and get back to where we need to be.

“We are going into a tough period of games and the demand will be we need to win games and having lost two league games in a row we need to. Today was poor. It’s been very similar to every game we have played after a European tie. A very slow start, lethargic, safe, which then turns into nerves, turns into giving away cheap chances.”

McAvoy said last week a switch which would see him step back and allow Naismith to take charge could happen now the necessity for a UEFA Pro Licence has gone with their Euro run over. Naismith said: “Yeah, we’ll probably go into more detail on that next week.

"At the moment we’re just looking at what’s been a bad weekend. The break has come at a time where we have played a lot of football.

"We have come from a time where we played a lot of pre-season games to an intense period of loads of competitive games which has helped