Souttar hails fans for Murrayfield efforts

Hearts defender John Souttar has praised the club’s supporters for contributing to a memorable atmosphere in what was the first of three ‘home’ matches at Murrayfield on Saturday.

The 0-0 draw with Aberdeen was played in front of nearly 25,000 fans amid fears that the home of Scottish rugby would feel like a ‘ghost town’.

Souttar, though, said: “I thought it was a really nice experience, Murrayfield is a beautiful stadium and the atmosphere was good.

“When we were there the day before, we thought this could be a ghost town because it looked that big but on the day of the game you could never tell because there was so much noise and they made it a really good day.”

Souttar, meanwhile, hopes training on artificial grass today and tomorrow at the club’s Oriam base will stand the players in good stead for playing on Accies’ synthetic surface on Saturday.

Speaking to Hearts TV, the former Dundee United man said: “It’s a completely different game from the grass. You wouldn’t imagine everything is so different – the way you check, the way you move is so different.

“That gives them an edge but I think if we play like we did last weekend then I think we’ll be fine.

“That will certainly help that we’re training on the astro on Thursday and Friday.

“Obviously we’ve not won there since 2011 so it’s going to be a tough, tough game.

“We want to build up some momentum now, we played well at the weekend so hopefully we can start producing wins.”

John Souttar: expects tough game at Hamilton.