Hearts 1-5 Spurs | Ange on a ‘decent’ display, Archie, Lucas and impact of youngsters

Ange Postecoglou was pleased with the team’s efforts as we beat Hearts 5-1 in our opening pre-season friendly at Tynecastle on Wednesday night.

Headlines from the night included debuts for new arrivals Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall, a return to action for Manor Solomon and first goals for Will Lankshear, Mikey Moore, Djed Spence and Ashley Phillips.

We took the lead through Brennan Johnson on 39 minutes and responded well to the home side’s equaliser less than a minute into the second half. Bergvall, Moore and Spence worked particularly well together down our right with Lankshear restoring our lead on 55 minutes and goals following from Moore (66), Spence (72) and Phillips (85).

Speaking to SPURSPLAY, Ange told us: “It was good, the good thing is there’s a good crowd in, and it feels like a game, which is the most important thing. Sometimes with friendlies, you have to generate some intensity and tempo, and I thought it was there. It was a good exercise for us, in both halves, the boys worked really hard, played some decent football at times. We’re nine days in, so we’re going to be rusty in certain areas, but no injuries and pleased with it.”

Archie and Lucas

Ange: “Archie did well. He, Skippy and Jamie probably weren’t expected to be starting in our back four, but that’s okay. It’s for guys like Archie to get accustomed to how we play, how we train and he’s an intelligent kid and coped with that okay today. It’s about letting him and Lucas settle into things. But I thought Archie was really good today. He did the things we know he can do well, and he’s adapting to the intensity and tempo of what we do. Lucas the same. They’re both really good kids. They’ve come here with the right attitude, both humble but really ambitious and want to make an impact. They are not here to just ease their way in, they want to play, and that’s what you want from young guys coming through. They bring a good energy to the group.”

Will, Mikey and the young lads

Ange: "Both Will and Mikey were good. I thought Alfie was good. It was good to see. Look, they get the opportunity, and the rest is up to them. To be fair to them, they’ve trained really well, look really bright. We brought Will in the last week or so and he looks really bright and good for him to get a goal tonight. All those young boys had a really good season last year, but they’ve got to come back and push on, because nothing stands still and they have to keep pushing on and improving. I was pleased with them. The whole second half our boys did really well."