Hearts' 3 performance types as Liam Fox's impact on one player laid bare

Going down 3-2 at Pittodrie on Sunday leaves the Tynecastle side winless and bottom of the Premiership going into the international break. Without a head coach following Steven Naismith’s departure last month, the Jambos expect to have a new man at the helm in time for their next assignment at home to St Mirren on October 19.

The display against the Dons should give whoever takes over reason for some optimism. Blair Spittal, who netted one of the goals, believes the showings against Ross County, Dinamo Minsk and Aberdeen since Naismith’s sacking are evidence of that.

"Over the last week, there's been three different types of performances,” said Spittal, a summer signing from Motherwell. “Last Saturday we went to the end to get the point, although we wanted three. Thursday night was a good feeling, and I think given the effort levels we put it on Thursday night, and how well Aberdeen are playing, I thought for large spells we were the better team. At this moment in time we don't get anything for that, which is disappointing.

"Obviously the red card changes things in terms of putting in a different type of performance, but I think everyone could see up until that point the way we were playing, the performance level was definitely there. We caused Aberdeen problems. Going 1-0 behind, it would have been easy for us to go under given the position we are in, but I thought we reacted really well and that's something we need to hold on to.

"It's easy to be glorious in defeat, but the performance level was there in large spells. Thursday demanded a lot more from us, probably tactically and from a defensive point of view, but I thought against Aberdeen both parts of the game were really good up until the red card. Then after that period, the way Aberdeen are playing now, it's hard and we invited the pressure on - we deepened ourselves off instead of taking that step forward. It's something we need to work on as a team.”

Spittal credited caretaker manager Liam Fox for the tweaks he has made since taking over, one of which has been pushing the 28-year-old into a more advanced role.

"Coming into a new club, I said at the time that I wanted to establish myself in a good team,” continued Spittal. “It was going to take a bit of time to adjust. I've felt myself being in or out but hopefully that was a sign of things to come. It felt good the last couple of games doing what Foxy has asked of me. The last couple of games have been really enjoyable working with him. We'll see what happens during the break. I think everyone knows there's going to be a new manager in, so it's important in this situation that we give food for thought for whoever that's going to be.”

Hearts now trail Aberdeen by 19 points, but Spittal is not writing off bridging the gap. "I think it's easy to say aye or no, but most importantly I think we need to start winning games,” he said of the current gulf. “We need to put that [the gap] to the back of our minds. There's not a lot in this league. Once you get a run of wins together, it's easy to see you climbing the league. A few teams have managed to do that. We know that we've got the quality in the squad that if we put a run together ... but we need to start somewhere.”