Hearts plan to keep Angus Beith and Dario Zanatta out on loan

The Edinburgh club renewed Zanatta’s initial one-month emergency loan two weeks ago and have watched him in action for Queen’s Park. Beith joined Stirling last month and has played twice so far.

Both players are on the fringes of the Tynecastle first team but need more experience of senior football before they are ready to step in.

“Angus is in the same situation as Liam Smith. He’s at an age when he needs to be playing first-team football,” said head coach Robbie Neilson. “That’s why he’s on loan at Stirling Albion. I’d hoped we could’ve pushed him into our first team this season but he got an injury in the summer, missed a chunk of pre-season and that stretched into the start of the season.

“He goes to Stirling and gets games, which is really important. Under-20 games don’t have the same intensity as a first-team match, no matter what level it’s at. He can play at Stirling, come back and we can reassess things and make a decision about him. He might go out again or he might stay in the first-team squad with us.

“With Dario, we had him in pre-season and we hoped he would kick on a bit but he didn’t quite make it into the first-team squad. We decided to put him out on loan. Gus MacPherson