Dinamo workout beneficial

Gary Locke believes last night's friendly defeat to Dinamo Bucharest got rid of his team's cobwebs and sets themselves up nicely for the rest of pre-season.

The Jambos travelled south to the Leigh Sports Village to take on Romanian side Dinamo Bucharest in the first pre-season friendly of this campaign. With youth taking centre stage once again, Hearts found Dinamo too strong a side and succumbed to a 5-1 defeat.

Speaking to Hearts News, Gary said: "They were a really good team. In an ideal world I'd have liked to have played them a week before the start of the season. I spoke to their coach after the game and I think that's the fourth or fifth game that they've played. I expected a hard game but with Dinamo being three or four weeks ahead of us we got a better test than what I thought.

"I'm disappointed to lose five goals but it was a great workout for the players. They were chasing the ball a fair bit and had to work hard to try and get it back, so in that sense it was good to watch them work really hard. For our first game it was certainly one that got the cobwebs well and truly washed away because we had to work very, very hard.

"The good thing is as well that the younger players got a chance to make their debuts. Gary Oliver and Adam King came on and we finished the match closer to an U20s team. Everybody got a chance, Dylan McGowan was the only one who had to play the 90 minutes, so we're pleased that we were able to give everybody a run out.

"We came across good opposition and they were probably a cut above what I expected. I said to the players that it's disappointing to lose five goals, I felt that two or three of the goals were easily preventable but once we get up to scratch and get a bit sharper then hopefully that won't happen again."

Hearts World