Gary Mackay: What Hearts need to do first in Alloa and why Michael Smith re-signing was so important

Alloa's Lee Connelly (left) tussles with Hearts' Peter Haring during the Betfred Cup match between Alloa Athletic and Heart of Midlothian at the Indodrill Stadium on November 28. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

One of the main lessons to take into Alloa is that, without being overly enthusiastic, it's maybe up to one of our players to make sure that the first tackle on Saturday counts for us.

There is no doubt that's what Dundee did. Shaun Byrne made the challenge on Steven Naismith within the first minute and wanted to put that down as a marker, and that's what Hearts are going to get. So maybe it's about turning things on its head and making sure we're the aggressors come Saturday.

You can't underestimate how difficult a place Alloa is to go, the recent defeat in the Scottish Cup proved that. Even with fans inside it's an eerie, open stadium, and there's the artificial surface. Yes, players train on them but it's completely different when they are asked to perform on them.

There are all these negatives but we just have to go there and be focused because the be all and end all is coming away with three points. Nothing else will do because there are other clubs around us who keep getting hope from the defeats we've been having periodically. We need to try to negate that hope for them as soon as we can.

Hearts will be boosted by the addition of Gary Mackay-Steven, who has got a proven pedigree of being a quality player, but for me, Michael Smith signng an extension to his contract was equally as positive news.

I sometimes think we don't always respect the players that are setting a continued standard at Tynecastle and Michael Smith is the ultimate professional in my eyes. The type you need in your team. He's not a 9 out of 10 or a 5 out of 10, he's always a 7 or 8 man and just goes about his business.

I see similarities in personality and reliability as we had with Walter Kidd when I played. Guys like him and Neil Berry were ones you knew you could hang your hat on every game and would give their all. No disrespect to Gary Mackay-Steven, he is good ball player and he could be introduced on Saturday, but it is guys like Michael Smith who'll drag a team through a difficult away fixture like the one we have this weekend.

But in terms of Mackay-Steven, hopefully he can bring the creativity and end product that Hearts have been continually looking for in the front third of the pitch for a few years now.

There are front players who are reliable, and there are are some who are flair players who dip in and out.

All the managers I played under from Alex MacDonald to Jim Jefferies, they didn't want you being a star one week than having a bad game the next. They wanted 7s or 8s out of 10 every week. That's what you have to aspire to and that's what Robbie Neilson is looking for. That's why he's added another front player I think not only for the quality Mackay-Steven has, but to see if that will inspire others who we know have quality, but maybe aren't producing it on as regular a basis as we'd like.

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