Steven Naismith salutes Hearts comeback heroes for dragging themselves out of 'toxic' Tynecastle mire

Steven Naismith felt the 'toxic' Tynecastle heat at half-time as Hearts trailed Dundee 2-0 - but saluted his players for turning it on its head.

The Jambos came back from two goals down to win 3-2 in the wind and rain in Gorgie. Jordan McGhee and Lyall Cameron had them on the ropes and boos rung out around the stadium when Naismith and his players traipsed down the tunnel for the break. But Calem Nieuwenhof and Dexter Lembikisa, making his full debut after joining on loan from Wolves, levelled it up. And Yutaro Oda's late winner sparked wild scenes and sealed a dramatic win.

It was the kind of resilience Naismith wants to see more of...even if he would quite happily never see a first half performance like that again. Asked about the boos, Naismith said: "That's the demand at Hearts. At half-time the environment is toxic and it's really tough to drag yourself from that. The dressing room was calm, the players knew before they came in it wasn't acceptable. But to turn it around, the stadium can be a real asset. It can be that way where you're constantly creating pressure.

"Playing for Hearts at home, the demand is high. You can't go out on the pitch and expect it's going to be good. Teams know that and they come and sit in and frustrate and that's what Dundee did. We were too slow and laboured, everything was really slow and it played into their hands. It's something we need to learn.

"The progression is we came back in the second half and showed a bravery and a freedom. I think it took an 18-year-old to come on and start dictating play, having that energy and making the right choices in his passing. Calem scores a good goal early, that was important and from then on it was attack vs defence. We were carrying a major