Stunning win ideal tonic for sleepy Smith
Marathon man Michael Smith admits the only thing he wanted after Hearts’ demolition of dismal Dundee was a decent night’s sleep.
The Jambos’ Mr Reliable played for an hour as Northern Ireland fell to a 1- 0 defeat in Norway on Wednesday evening, while he also was part of the squad which travelled to Bosnia & Herzegovina and hosted Austria.
He only arrived back on Scottish soil on Thursday following but, typical of the man, made it clear that he would be ready to play the full 90 minutes against the Dee little more than 24 hours later.
And any fears about fatigue following his tussle with Erling Haaland and Co. were put to bed after four minutes when he cut inside Jordon Forster and fired a low shot past Jack Hamilton to set Hearts on their way to a stunning 6-2 triumph.
Smith said: “I didn’t get any sleep on Wednesday night – the first bit of rest I really got was at 11 am on Thursday morning.
“So, I was pretty tired after the game on Friday night. I’ll get a couple of days off to recover, spend some time with the family and get a decent night’s sleep!
“But I was always going to put my hand up to play. It was agreed that I would come off after 60 minutes in Norway so that I could play on Friday – I was desperate to play and getting a good win makes that all worthwhile.”
Hearts followed up their 100% start to the Betfred Cup group phase by tearing apart their supposed closest rivals for the Championship title.
Goals from Josh Ginnelly, Liam Boyce, Andy Halliday and a Stephen Kingsley brace added to Smith’s opener as Dundee were blown away.
And Smith reckons Hearts are well on their way to re-establishing a fear factor after making a statement of intent.
He continued: “We know it’s only night one but it’s certainly not a result they (Dundee) would have wanted.
“Teams will fear playing us and we need to take that pressure and live with it. We are the favourites for the league, which is a good pressure to have, and we need to react the right way.
“We can get that fear factor back to Tynecastle. The gaffer is setting us up to play at a fast tempo and teams will struggle to live with us – that’s 100% what we want to be about this season.”