Steven Naismith was impressed with the “intensity” that debutant substitute Dexter Lembikisa brought to Hearts’ play as they eked out a 2-1 victory over spirited fourth-tier side Spartans in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup fourth round on Saturday.
The Jamaica international right-back – who spent the first half of the campaign with Rotherham – joined the Jambos on loan from Wolves until the end of the season and the Jambos support got their first sight of him at Ainslie Park when he entered the fray just before the hour mark.
At that point Hearts were leading through Kenneth Vargas’ third goal in as many games but they were pegged back by a stunning equaliser from Spartans midfielder James Craigen before Frankie Kent spared the cinch Premiership side from ignominy when he headed the winner in stoppage time.
When asked about Lembikisa’s encouraging start, Naismith said: “That urgency and intensity I speak about, he gave us it.
“First time he gets the ball, he takes his man on, beats him and puts it in the box. He was also in at the back post a couple of times.
“He’s a good addition for us and that’s why we got him in as early as we could.
“The level he has played at and in the last year, in terms of becoming an international, he’s a good player to have in our squad. And it’s one where you will probably see the best of him as he goes on.”
On the day when 41-year-old goalkeeper Craig Gordon made his first start in 13 months following a double leg-break, another Hearts debutant against Spartans was 16-year-old attacker James Wilson, who came on at the same time as Lembikisa.
Japanese forwards Yutaro Oda and Kyosuke Tagawa were the two players who went off at that point after they failed to shine in the absence of talismanic striker Lawrence Shankland who missed out through illness.
Wilson signed a new contract with Hearts last summer amid interest from several clubs, including Manchester United and Aston Villa, and Naismith felt the teenager merited the chance to go on and help his team find a second goal.
“James came on because we needed him,” said Naismith. “He is somebody who is very intelligent with his movement and he’s a goal threat.
“I didn’t think we had enough goal threat at times and that’s why we put him on.
“He’s somebody who has come in full-time and has to learn and work on the aspects of physically where he is at compared to who he is coming up against. He’s definitely got the intelligence for it.”
Barcelona must 'work hard' to achieve Champions League glory, says Flick
Hansi Flick tempered expectations of Barcelona's chances of silverware in his first season in charge ahead of facing Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League.
Flick has led Barca to 13 wins from 15 games in all competitions, scoring 50 goals in those games while conceding just 14 times.
Some standout matches have seen Barca thrash Clasico rivals Real Madrid 4-0 while also brushing aside Bayern Munich 4-1 in the Champions League in their last match in the competition.
While Flick understood the fans' excitement after those results, he urged his side to keep their feet on the ground with a long season still in front of them.
"We have to work hard. There are many teams who dream of the same thing, of winning (the Champions League)," Flick said.
"For the moment, we're going to focus on working hard and grinding out, so then we'll see what happens. We have to focus on our goal which is to keep improving.
"A team's form fluctuates a lot over a long season. The important thing is to focus on winning the next match. Sure, after the match against Bayern everything changed.
"But we are just starting. The important thing is how we finish the season. We could say that our goal is to be in the top eight."
Flick, however, insisted he was not surprised by his side's impressive start to the campaign despite enduring a trophyless season last term.
Barca are nine points clear at the top of LaLiga and 11th in the Champions League table ahead of facing Red Star, who are without a win from their three games so far.
"Before we came here we analysed the whole team, every player. We realised that there was very good quality overall," Flick said.
"Another thing to point out is that we wanted to improve how we defend and did small changes in the way we play. The players liked it and they are happy working on it.
"The players play a big role, they are helping us a lot.
"The start was already good on the pre-season in North American and the players are very happy, although there are still many things to improve."
And Barca will be confident of keeping their fine form going against a side that has lost 81% of their matches in the Champions League (P21 W2 D2 L17).
This is the first European meeting between the two sides since October 1996 in the Cup Winners’ Cup, a 1-1 draw with Giovanni cancelling out a Zoran Jovicic's opener for the Serbians.
PSV 4-0 Girona: Dutch side get first win of Champions League
PSV Eindhoven won their first match in the Champions League this season as they thrashed Girona 4-0 at the Philips Stadion on Tuesday.
Ryan Flamingo got the scoring under way after 16 minutes as he turned Malik Tillman's long throw home, despite replays showing that it should have been disallowed as Tillman's foot was over the byline before releasing the ball.
Tillman got himself on the scoresheet 17 minutes later with a fine finish after he arribed into the box unopposed.
Things went from bad to worth for Girona after half-time, with Arnau Martinez receiving a red card 10 minutes into the second half for a second bookable offence.
From then, it was all one-way traffic and PSV might feel aggrieved not to have won by a bigger margin given their glut of second-half chances.
Ismael Saibari was next to put the ball in the back of the net, although his effort was ruled out for a foul in the build-up following a VAR review.
Johan Bakayoko did get PSV's third with seven minutes to go, before a Ladislav Krejci own goal wrapped up the rout in the 88th minute. The result leaves Girona 26th in the table on three points, while PSV are 19th with five points.
Odegaard returns to full Arsenal training ahead of Inter tie
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has returned to full training after spending two months out of action with an ankle injury.
Odegaard has missed 12 matches for the Gunners in all competitions after damaging his ankle ligaments against Austria while on international duty with Norway in September.
The 25-year-old midfielder trained with Arsenal ahead of their trip to the San Siro to face Inter in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Mikel Arteta's side have, however, struggled in Odegaard's absence recently, failing to win any of their last three games in the Premier League.
In the seven games that Odegaard has missed in the top-flight, Arsenal's win percentage dropped from 66.7% to 42.9% after going unbeaten in their first three games.
The Gunners have also averaged 1.6 points per game without Odegaard, compared to 2.3 points won with the Norwegian in their ranks.
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