POSITIONAL SENSE
Jordan: I‘ll thrive at Hearts in my proper role
Jordan McGhee last night welcomed the chance of a fresh start at Hearts under Ian Cathro.
The Scotland Under- 21 defender pulled on a maroon shirt for the first time in 14 months in yesterday’s friendly win at Livingston.
And after a year on loan with Middlesbrough’s Under-23s, disillusioned with being passed from pillar to post by former Hearts boss Robbie Neilson, the 20-year- old insists he’s come back a better player as he enters the last six months of his deal at Tynecastle deal.
In a solid workout for a strong Jambos side still missing half a dozen top- team regulars, summer signing Cole Stockton scored his first goal for the club to settle the clash.
And as Hearts head to Ireland for friendlies with St Patrick’s and Linfield, McGhee said: “It was a great feeling, under different circumstances.
“The new gaffer has come in with new philosophies and the way he wants to play suits me down to a tee. He wants to get the ball down and pass. So far I’ve enjoyed it.
“My dea l runs out at Chr istmas – I signed an extension at the time just so Hearts could get some money for me if the deal happened – but this is a fresh start.
“I learned a lot from my year down south. Technically, on the ball, but I got my confidence back more than anything.
“I played a lot of positions under Robbie. To play 35, 40 games in my own position against good, technical, strong players stands me in good stead for coming back up here. I feel 10 times more confident and better in my own ability.
“Now I’ll see where it takes me. I’m optimistic.”
Cathro insists McGhee has a clean slate – and time to impress.
He said: “We’re just getting to know Jordan but he’s a part of the group we’re working with. We’ve only been back a couple of weeks, so that needs time.
“He’s right to describe it as a fresh start though because we had no preconceived ideas on anything. We’re just getting to work with each other and see how things are. At a point we’ll have to make a decision but we’re not there yet.”
Hearts looked like they still had a few gears to find in front of an impressive 1500-strong support – but were missing new recruits Kyle Lafferty, Michael Smith and Ashley Smith-Brown as well as Aaron Hughes, Arnaud Djoum and wantaway Jamie Walker, whose absence was shrugged off later by Cathro.
He said: “Jamie trained with a group this morning and he’ll travel to Ireland.
“The game was okay for us, it gives everyone a chance to feel the sharpness, a little bit of the chaos going on and get adjusted to it. It was reasonable.”
In a 3- 4-3 set-up, Hearts saw plenty of the bal l without taking apart the Championship side. The goal came in 20 minutes, Rory Currie and Don Cowie combining well to lay it on a plate for the ex-Tranmere striker, with the assistant ref giving his effort off the underside of the bar the benefit of the doubt it had crossed the line.
Livi boss David Hopkin said: “It was a good workout against a quality team. We had five out through injury so we did well.”