'˜Fright' will do Hearts signings a world of good says Craig Levein

Hearts summer signing Ben Garuccio is expected to make his competitive debut tonight. Picture: SNS.

Hearts manager Craig Levein believes the supporters' angry reaction to the weekend's languid performance against Raith Rovers will have more of an impact than his warning to the newcomers about the high expectations at the club..

More than 800 fans travelled across the Forth to watch Saturday’s Betfred Cup penalty shoot-out victory at Bayview and they made their feelings clear in a game in which Michael Smith pulled the Tynecastle outfit level with a stunning drive after Kevin Nisbet had opened the scoring.

Seven of the 13 summer recruits who have so far arrived in Edinburgh started the Group C tie and Levein insists that “fright” has made the players realise that another disappointing campaign will not be tolerated by either himself or the supporters.

Hearts will play on their new £1 million hybrid pitch for the first time in this evening’s must-win clash with Cowdenbeath and the former Scotland manager, pictured, is hoping for a much-improved display to get the fans onside.

He said: “I can tell them that we have a demanding set of supporters and it’s not always the easiest club to play for because expectations are high.

“But it’s better when they experience it and they certainly experienced it at the  weekend.

“It doesn’t do any harm sometimes to get a fright and I think a few of them have had a fright at the weekend.

“We’ve got to acknowledge when you haven’t played well. It doesn’t do any good to anybody to pretend otherwise.

“There are two things: sometimes you just have to wait for some people to come up to speed in pre-season. That’s a normal thing. But I still think we should have done better than we did.

“So I’ll make changes for the Cowdenbeath game and coming back home will help.

“I always feel good about playing here and the pitch is in great  condition.”