If Carlsberg did managerial welcome Saturday’s then it would include an afternoon of glorious sunshine and four goals for new Hearts boss Neil Critchley.
But a full-time Tynecastle tannoy announcement confirming city rivals Hibs had replaced them at the bottom of the Premiership would probably be stretching it.
For a Jambos side that had achieved a first league win of the campaign with a destruction of St Mirren, news of events on Tayside should have been small beer for the support but that scoreline brought the biggest cheer from a feelgood-starved fanbase.
Even Critchley admitted he couldn’t have stage-managed a better way to settle into the Gorgie dugout and scripting those two late Dundee United goals at Tannadice would just have been greedy.
But this success for the Englishman comes with a few caveats. Few sides will put up as poor a showing as St Mirren did on Saturday and after ending a run of pulling in just two points from 24, this win provides something of a season reboot and the chance to build some momentum.
Everything went to plan and the performance of Blair Spittal typified the stunning reversal of fortune of a team that had run out of answers under previous boss Steven Naismith.
The midfielder capped his best showing in a Hearts jersey with a goal and he was quick to stress that providing Critchley with a winning start doesn’t absolve their awful start to the campaign but it did provide the launchpad for new beginnings.
He said: “It’s a massive result for us. Coming away from the defeat at Aberdeen in our last game when we knew the performance was good even if the result wasn’t, I said after the game it was important we backed that up. We needed to start getting the result as well as the performance and we managed to do that.
“It’s now something for us to build on, definitely. We need to remember we are still in a position we don’t want to be on the table. We’ve now managed to give ourselves a good start under the new manager.
“That was all we could have hoped for and we now have a massive game on Thursday in the Europa Conference League against Omonia Nicosia. Games are now coming up hard and fast and that’s what we want as players when things are going well.
“It was important we scored first as we knew it would be a difficult test against St Mirren and they’d try and draw us into a bit of a battle. We managed to take that away from them. It was important that we started well and we managed to do that.”
Critchley’s first bow also coincided with Hearts taking the lead for the time in the league and it was thanks to a sublime Lawrence Shankland flick that freed Kenneth Vargas who blasted home a low first-half shot and Daniel Oyegoke curled in a second moments after the restart.
Stephen Robinson’s side were condemned to their third top-flight loss in a row as James Wilson and Spittal put a deserved shine on the scoreline but the Buddies were abysmal both as an almost non-existent attacking force and in their calamitous defending.
The cynics over Critchley’s appointment will have raised an eyebrow or two over both the way he has spoken and conducted himself since arriving last week and in his ability to get an instant tune out of a squad that had been rock- bottom and beleaguered.
Credit where credit’s due and Spittal admits his new gaffer has just been stressing the basics as Thursday night’s clash against Omonia is now anticipated with a greater degree of confidence.
He said: “When the manager came in he spoke about the things we were in control of, hard work, commitment.
“He had two or three days to drum a few ideas into us, he also said things will take a bit of time to happen.
“So it was important that we went out there and managed to get the fans behind us.
“We haven’t given them a lot to shout about so far this season but when you put in performances like that and start the way we did, it gets the whole stadium pulled together and the fans were right behind us. It was important to get the manager’s reign off to a good start and get a bit of momentum going into the game on Thursday now.
“We’re looking forward to that now and don’t really know what to expect in terms of not having come up against Omonoia before.
“It’ll be a stern test but one we now look forward to on the back of a good win. It was a good day all round for the team, it’s given us something to build on.”
In the midst of a post-match glow, Spittal tried to put some context to the win and to whether it was his top display since arriving in Gorgie this summer. He added: “It’s easier to say that after winning 4-0 and with the feelgood factor.
“Things went well and the way we pressed St Mirren allowed us to get onto the front foot.
“Right from the off we didn’t allow St Mirren any opportunities and that was something we spoke about as we’ve been a wee bit open in transition. We managed to suffocate the game well and made sure we were in control throughout.
“It was a really good team performance but we are not going to get carried away.”