All guns blazing: Hearts will shoot up the Premier
There were times during the latter part of this season when Hearts appeared to be losing their way to some extent.
But the Tynecastle side have recovered in dramatic fashion, bulldozing their way through the closing stages of the campaign to clinch the Championship title with a run of positive results.
It culminated in a highly-impressive 4-0 demolition of promotion contenders Raith Rovers on Friday night.
Midfielder turned full back Andy Halliday acknowledged the club’s mini slump.
But the former Rangers man clearly feels that the Jambos have turned the corner and are now ready once again for a crack at the big time.
“Our recent performances have been superb,” enthused Halliday in the aftermath of the Raith game.
“We had a spell where we had poor performances, poor results and were conceding easy goals – but that’s now five clean sheets in a row.
“We’re looking solid and getting back to the free-flowing play which we had at the start of the season.
“What’s done is done. The objective was to get Hearts back to the top flight at the first time of asking and we’re delighted to have done that.
“Now its all guns blazing for next season.” Halliday feels that by ending the season on the back of a string of top quality performances will underline the club’s ambition with regard to what lies ahead.
“These results and performances give us the momentum which we want to carry into next season,” he said.
“As players, you want to show that you’re ready for the cause.
“We know its going to be a step up to a better league and we need to show that we are more than capable of dealing with that.
“Even though we had that spell of poor
performances, we believe in the quality we had in the squad and we’ve shown that in the last few games.
“Our attackers are doing well, scoring goals and at the back we’ve been solid, keeping clean sheets.”
Halliday is confident that Hearts are capable of making an impact in the Premiership.
While he accepts that there may be new signings over the summer, he feels that the current squad is sufficiently competent to do so.
“I’ve always believed in the quality we have in this squad,” he said.
“Remember, this team took us to a Scottish Cup Final.
“We beat a good Hibs team in the semis and more than matched Celtic in the Final where we were just two penalty-kicks short of coming away with winner’s medals.”
Although Hearts won the title with three games to spare, Halliday was at pains to point out that their achievement was at no time a foregone conclusion.
“Its not easy to win any league” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re the best team in the league or the club with the biggest budget.
“We’ve seen a lot of teams struggle to get out of this league at the first time of asking.
“But, in the end, we’ve done what was expected of us.“