Gary Mackay: Fans and benefactors deserve payback from Hearts

The amount of money Ann Budge has put into Hearts shouldn’t be forgotten, and she has obviously given another loan to help with working capital and running costs.

Ultimately, these gestures are to be paid back. That’s far easier if you are in the Premiership because of the income at that level, even without crowds.

That means the players should be looking at the club’s accounts and realising the goodwill of benefactors donating another £3m. That’s on top of Ann’s loans and a six-figure sum from Foundation of Hearts.

Players should be thinking: ‘These people allow us to stay on the salaries we are on and continue performing for a club of Hearts’ size.’ One or two of them maybe didn’t think they would be playing for a club of this stature and it’s about payback now.

There has to be some payback from the players because life is a two-way street. You need to understand that when people are trying to help you, support you and pay your contract, you need to respond.

Next summer is a long way away, but where do a lot of these guys go if they aren’t at Hearts come that time?

The reason these benefactors are continuing to donate cash is because they see the potential of Heart of Midlothian Football Club.

At this moment in Scottish football, there is an opportunity to go and consolodate ourselves as the third-top club in the country. That opportunity has been there for a couple of years now.

That’s the reason Robbie Neilson left Dundee United, no doubt about it. He knows the opportunities. It’s up to him to get performances and results out of the players because it’s now win-at-all-costs for Hearts at Morton on Saturday.

Cappielow is another hard, hard venue. The pitch is tight, there’s no crowd to back you and you will get another very difficult game from Morton.

That game is massive. We have to stamp our authority on it from the first minute and don’t take our foot off the gas until the final whistle.

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