Steven Naismith is confident Hearts can regain their early-season momentum.
Hearts recorded their first win on Saturday since Naismith went down with a knee injury in the early stages of their Betfred Cup semi-final on October 28.
Craig Levein’s side topped the Ladbrokes Premiership at the time after winning eight and drawing one of their opening 10 matches but Naismith’s injury, on top of the absence of the likes of Christophe Berra, John Souttar and Uche Ikpeazu, has seen them tumble to fourth.
But Berra returned to action earlier this month and Naismith is set to return for the festive period, and the 32-year-old is sure they can go on another impressive run.
Naismith, whose team are only three points off the top, said: “You chop it into blocks. We need to be looking at being still in that mix around the winter break.
“It’s shown so far this season that every team can take points off everybody. It’s about building groups of games and getting good performances.
“We have shown over the first three or four months of the season that we are capable of doing that.
“The boys that have been in the team have shown over the last week that they are not just going to sit down and accept it.
“You could easily have gone through the week of the Rangers game, St Johnstone, Motherwell, with no points but we have put up some good fights. On other days we would have got more points but we’ve dug in, we have shown a steeliness.
“The more players come back, you would hope the more competition for places and the performances rise again.”
Levein has pencilled Naismith in for a return at Aberdeen on December 22 and the Scotland international remains on target in his recovery from a cartilage operation.
“The recovery has gone well,” said Naismith, who was sponsoring a festive meal for people in need in Glasgow in conjunction with charity Loaves and Fishes.
“I’m at the late stage of the rehab and I feel good. We have hit every target along the way and it’s more a case of finishing that off and having some good training and then I’ll be available.
“I know we spoke about the Aberdeen game but I’ll not tempt fate, I’ll just get my head down and work hard.”
