Jambos Uche of class
Ikpeazu plans to forge goal link with loan star
Jambo giant Uche Ikpeazu reckons Stevie Naismith is the man to help him tower above Premiership defences.
The 6ft 3ins striker scored both goals – including a penalty – and hit the bar to quickly get the Hearts fans onboard in yesterday’s friendly with Dumbarton.
The 23-year-old got the chance to link up with Naisy after the ex-Everton and Rangers veteran rejoined on loan.
And Ikpeazu believes the 31-year-old holds the key to getting the best out of him in his debut season in Scotland.
The summer signing from Cambridge United said: “It was great to play with Steven. You can see why he has played at the top level for so long.
“He makes my life easier. He was talking to me all through the day and telling me when to take my breathers.
“I really enjoyed playing with him and hopefully we can have a great relationship in the season ahead.
“It was good to get a couple of goals. It’s always good for a striker’s conf idence and I should have had three but over-ran a chance at the end.”
Naismith had the ball in the net in seven minutes but was offside as he headed Jake Mulraney’s free-kick home.
But Hearts were ahead six minutes later when Ikpeazu ran on to a clever throughball from Bobby Burns and was taken down by Craig Barr.
Hearts’ new arrival slammed the spotkick into the left corner before ratting the bar with a free-kick after Aidan Keena was taken out by Ross Perry. Ikpeazu said: “There was no chance anyone else was going to take the penalty.
“I was a bit unlucky with my free-kick too but I will keep working hard on the training ground and hopefully these will go in more times than not.”
Mulraney, another of Hearts’ 11 summer captures, fired a shot a foot too high in 73 minutes but was instrumental in Ikpeazu’s late second.
The winger forced a terrific save out of Grant Adam but he could only divert the ball into the path of Callum Morrison. And the sub quickly played the ball back across goal for Ikpeazu to slam home.
Boss Craig Levein, who is trying to do a deal with Teplice to get Czech striker David Vanecek this week, said: “Uche is technically good, he’s quick and a strong boy. A couple of times he was penalised just because he was stronger than the opponent, which was a bit unfair.
“It was a good start for him, getting a couple of goals. I was pleased with his performance. Naisy was good. I was only going to play him for a half but he surprised me with his fitness. It’s good to have him back. Bobby Burns was good. The back three looked solid. “Peter Haring looked as though he had been with us for a while – his reading of the game and his passing were fantastic. “We’ve signed David on a pre-contract but he still has five months of his contract left so we will see if we can do a deal with his club.”