Steven Naismith was delighted to banish Hearts’ “incredible” wait of almost two years to record three consecutive league wins.
The Jambos eked out a 1-0 victory at home to St Johnstone, following up the triumphs over Motherwell and Livingston prior to the international break.
It is the first time that they have managed to collected nine points from a possible nine since they defeated Dundee and Ross County in December 2021 and then St Johnstone the following month, and now Naismith wants his team to maintain the consistency.
“A stat which I worked out earlier in the week which is incredible is that we hadn’t won three league games in a row since January 2022,” he said. “It’s an incredible stat for a club like Hearts.
“We have done that today and we have now got to use that. As I said last week and the week before, we need to be consistent in keeping clean sheets, making chances, getting goals and winning games. So it’s been a good afternoon. The biggest gripe is probably that we’ve not scored more goals.”
The only goal of the game came in the 61st minute came when Liam Boyce steered an effort towards goal, although it flicked off Lawrence Shankland on its way into the net, and the Scotland forward appears to have been credited with his 11th club goal of the season.
“I think it’s Shanks who has been fortunate,” said Naismith when asked to clear up the confusion about who scored the goal. “Boyce has done all the leg work and it’s a controlled finish, and then it’s come off Shanks’ calf and goes in. Shanks is certainly claiming it.
“By the time we made it into the changing room everyone had given it to Shanks.”
Naismith was baffled that Hearts were not awarded a first-half penalty when Alan Forrest went down under a challenge from Luke Robinson.
“It’s a penalty all day long, but are referees refereeing the game differently now because they’re thinking VAR might step in, but if it doesn’t hit the threshold for clean and obvious it’s not given?” mused Naismith. “It’s a penalty, no debate about it.”
Recently-appointed St Johnstone boss Craig Levein was encouraged by his team’s display but joked that he was disappointed he did not get a more hostile reception from the Hearts supporters.
The 59-year-old spent a huge chunk of his career at Tynecastle as a player, director of football and two-time manager, before he was sacked four years ago.
“I was expecting to get a little bit of stick but it didn’t really materialise,” he laughed. “I was a wee bit disappointed. I need to have a word with the Hearts fans about that!”
Reflecting on the match, Levein added: “We were in the game at all times even after the goal, but what do you do with Boyce and Shankland if they get a chance? We tried to stop them getting chances and that was one of the things I was really pleased about.
“Apart from that opportunity we restricted them to very little but they’re just so good at putting the ball in the back of the net. We fell foul to that today.”
Verona 0-5 Inter: Five-star visitors go top of Serie A
Inter hammered lowly Verona 5-0 away from home on Saturday to move top of the Serie A table, with all five goals coming in the first half.
The hosts could easily have taken the lead through Casper Tengstedt just six minutes in as he struck the post after causing chaos in the box, but Inter sparked to life after that.
Joaquin Correa rattled the crossbar moments later, and then opened the scoring after 17 minutes, finishing off a lovely team move by chipping Lorenzo Montipo.
Having set up the opener, Marcus Thuram added a quick-fire double; twice in three minutes, he took the goalkeeper out of the game with clever play before picking out the back of the net.
Substitute Stefan de Vrij fired their fourth past Montipo before Yann Bisseck managed to pick out the top corner despite initially tripping over the ball in the 41st minute.
The second half was a subdued affair, though Correa almost scored another, but instead smacked the crossbar for a second time.
Inter leapfrogged Napoli, who do not play until Sunday, as they moved into first with 28 points. Verona are 14th on 12 points.
Data Debrief: Full-throttle first half
It was a pretty much perfect first half from Simone Inzaghi's side, and it gave the manager a chance to rest some key players with a Champions League tie ahead of them in midweek.
Inter scored five goals in the first half of an away league game for only the second time in their history in Serie A - after the 5-1 score against Sampdoria in the first 45 minutes of play back in March 1964.
The visitors scored with all five of their shots on target in the first period and outperformed their 2.79 expected goals (xG) by some margin.
Correa has scored in a Serie A game 756 days after his last goal in the top-flight, on 29th October 2022, against Sampdoria, at Meazza. Meanwhile, all three of his away goals have come against Verona at Bentegodi.
Chelsea not focused on Liverpool and Man City, insists Jackson after Leicester win
Chelsea are not getting carried away by talk of a title challenge following their 2-1 win over Leicester City, according to striker Nicolas Jackson.
Jackson netted his seventh Premier League goal of the season and was joined on the scoresheet by Enzo Fernandez on Saturday, as Enzo Maresca got one over on his former club at the King Power Stadium.
The result lifted the Blues to 22 points in third, just one adrift of champions Manchester City in second and six behind leaders Liverpool.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Jackson said: "We know the months of November and December have a lot of games, so we just try to recover for the next one and go again.
"I saw the danger, then the ball came to Enzo, he gave it to me and he finished. I'm just working in every game to try to help the team win."
Asked if Chelsea were now thinking of themselves as title challengers, he added: "No, we don't look at the teams in front of us, we just try to win every game."
Five of Jackson's goals this season have come on the road, the most of any player in the Premier League.
Since the start of May, only Erling Haaland (18) has bettered Jackson's 11 goals in the competition overall.
Leicester got a stoppage-time consolation through Jordan Ayew's penalty, though they earlier felt aggrieved not to be awarded a spot-kick when Stephy Mavididi was seemingly felled by Wesley Fofana in the 85th minute.
Boss Steve Cooper lamented that call, saying: "We've had some terrible luck with this referee. That continued today.
"There's also the game to talk about. Tough first half in terms of Chelsea territory and dominance with the ball. We gave away a poor goal. It should have been 0-0.
"Defensively we were generally okay. We need to be showing courage and belief. If we do that we can create chances and be a threat.
"The big moment is the first penalty not given, it's clear what happened there. The second one was offside [before VAR] and you see how onside he was.
"That was the story of the officials' game. You can speak to them after 30 minutes. I'm not sure if I will or won't."
'It's an honour' - Flick delighted by Messi's Barcelona praise
Hansi Flick says it is an "honour" to hear Lionel Messi praise Barcelona's start to the season.
Flick took over as Barcelona head coach in May, with the club making an impressive start to LaLiga, as they sit top on 33 points after 13 matches.
They have won 11 of their games, losing the other two, while they are sixth in the Champions League table, just three points behind leaders Liverpool.
Messi, who spent 17 years at Barcelona before leaving to join Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, recently described Flick's team as "spectacular", in particular lauding his use of young players in the team.
The German has not shied away from using academy players during his time at Barcelona so far, with Lamine Yamal the standout of the bunch after he carried last season's form into this campaign.
Yamal is the only player across Europe's big five leagues to complete 25+ dribbles (34), create 25+ chances (26), have 25+ shots (39), score 5+ goals (five) and provide 5+ assists (seven).
When asked how he felt about Messi's comments, Flick was delighted.
"It's an honour to hear the best player in history say that he likes this Barca," he told reporters.
"He follows the team closely, he has his heart set on this club, that means a lot to the youngsters and to the team."
Barcelona return to LaLiga action when they travel to Celta Vigo on Saturday, looking to extend their lead at the top of the league.
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