Derek McInnes believes the Hearts support can continue to spur the team on to victory, as they prepare for their second game of a busy six-day period.
The Jambos kickstarted the week with a hard-fought three points at Dens Park on Sunday, in front of around 4,000 Jambos and will welcome St Mirren to a packed Tynecastle on Wednesday night looking to pick up another win.
Speaking to Hearts TV, McInnes said:
“We need all the help we can get. I think the fans realise by now that any sort of interaction, any positivity towards the team, any extra noise, it helps us. There’s no two ways about it.
“Our away form is the strongest in the league for a reason and that’s because we get that backing home and away. Particularly away from home at the minute, we’re getting sold out everywhere we go. We run out for warm-ups, we see even on Sunday, we come out of the hotel in Dundee after our pre-match and there was a trainload of Hearts fans that had just come in and it just coincided with them walking past the bus at the time.
“We see the passion from them, we see the effort they make and it’s great when we turn out at away games and see the Hearts end jam-packed.
“For the home games, it’s vitally important. I know a lot of conversation has been had about how we can increase the atmosphere and how we can get behind the team. The team’s got the biggest responsibility for that, but anything anybody wants to do to help, crack on.
“We have to use what we’ve got as a club and it’s vitally important to remind people that we want Tynecastle to be something extra special, something extra intimidating for the opponents.
“A place where our players are really at home, really enjoying playing at home and playing in front of the fans. It’s something that I wanted from the outset and it’s something I think we’ve got for the majority of this season.
“We don’t have the finances of Rangers and Celtic. We’re now directly in competition with Rangers and Celtic as it stands in the league. We don’t have the finances of them. We are the underdog; there’s no two ways about it.
“We will never have the money that they have, but what we have can be so much more in terms of recruiting well, having a great team spirit, having a brilliant atmosphere, having a fanbase that really make it difficult for opponents when they turn up at Tynecastle.
“I just ask that we can keep delivering our part, the fans can keep adding to that side as well. I’m not going to sit here and demand that we need better because we’re the biggest driving force as a team to try and produce big performances that the fans can buy into.
“I think you’ve seen some of the best performances from the sidelines and from the pitch against the bigger teams when we have been the underdog. Sometimes when we’re not the underdog, and a lot more is expected of us, sometimes they’re the more difficult moments.
“This isn’t a purple patch; this isn’t just a little spell over the top of the league. We’re nearly four months at the top of the league, it’s something substantial. We carry ourselves properly as a club and as a team and we just want to try and keep where we are.
“We’re comfortable where we are, which is important, and we’re exactly where we want to be. But for us to stay there, given what Rangers and Celtic will do coming up, they’ll spend fortunes in January, money that we can’t, we’re still paying Hearts wages. What the players are giving us at the minute is a different class and it’s important we just keep tapping into what we’ve got.”
You can watch Derek’s interview in full on Hearts TV.
