Gary Mackay: Call-off drives fans mad but midweeks are magic for me

I WAS disappointed the game was called off on Saturday, as it's likely to mean another midweek game added into our already-hectic schedule.

Having said that, however, if you've got momentum, the players prefer to be playing Saturday-midweek-Saturday as it means the training schedule is lessened. I hear people saying 'oh no we've got three games a week coming up' but when I was a player I used to love playing midweek because you were doing less physical training. It was just a case of ticking over and recovering between games.

We've only had three games over the past month, so you could say Hearts have almost have had a sort of mini mid-season break enforced upon them through postponements. Such a situation could bode well later in the season, but it's hard to second-guess exactly what effect the stop-start nature of the season will have if I'm honest. Right now, I don't think our situation is too bad at all because they should get another break the weekend of the Scottish Cup if they don't rearrange any games for that week. What I would say is that the players will be a bit frustrated with all the call-offs because you always want to play when the games are scheduled. You want to play on a Saturday because that's when you get the bigger crowds, as maybe not as many will travel on a midweek.

I really feel for the supporters because we're now likely to have four midweek away games coming up. It shouldn't affect the players that the games are in midweek as it's always nice to run out in front of a travelling Hearts support, but this little run is set to stretch the bank balance of our fans.

Speaking of our fans, I was disappointed with the way Saturday's postponement was handled. I know the weather in this country is unpredictable, but surely Dundee United could have put out some kind of warning on Friday night or Saturday morning to say, 'hang fire, there's going to be an inspection at 12noon' or whatever time it was and that would have stopped Hearts fans setting off early for the game but still have given them plenty time to get up to Dundee if it was on. A lot of fans make a day of away games so some would have set off early in the morning and I feel for those people. Regardless of what team it is, if you have a concern at 9.00am that the game might not be on then surely it is of paramount importance that you let the away team and their supporters know.

Another reason that Saturday's postponement was disappointing is that it denied us the chance to bounce back from last week's Scottish Cup exit at the hands of St Johnstone. As I said last week, I feared the decision to close the Wheatfield Stand might backfire on us and unfortunately that's how it proved as the atmosphere was flat from the start. Nobody likes going out the cup but now we can concentrate all our efforts on the league where it's all to play for, starting with tomorrow's massive game against Kilmarnock.

St Johnstone's late equaliser against Killie at the weekend means we go to Rugby Park with an eight-point advantage over them as well as a game in hand. They will know they probably have to beat us if they are to have a chance of catching us, so they will be fired up for the game. If we can go 11 points ahead of Killie, who look like being our main rivals for third place, it also gives us a wee bit of leeway when we head into this double-header against Rangers and Celtic. There's a lot of speculation about Conor Sammon and if he was to leave Kilmarnock before tomorrow's game, that would be a bonus for Hearts, while even if he does play tomorrow his mind may well be on other matters. Our away form, as we all know, has been magnificent and if we come out of tomorrow's trip to Ayrshire still having only lost one away game all season then we'll be in good shape.

I'm not a fan of the January transfer window - very little of note seems to happen during it. And I'm not sure Hearts really need to be doing too much business this month.

The reason we are in the good position we are in just now is because of the efforts of all the staff at the club so far so that tells you the people currently at the club are capable.

Yes, there will be injuries and suspensions along the way but then it's up to those on the fringes to come in and take their opportunity as the likes of Calum Elliot, Ryan Stevenson and Craig Thomson have done. Those players always come in and show the correct attitude but that needs to rub off on the likes of David Obua, who I'm not so sure showed the necessary desire to improve the team when he came on as a sub against St Johnstone. He needs to improve his attitude if and when he gets another opportunity.