Collins told the Edinburgh Evening News: "We watch players and judge them for ourselves, we went to see them with our own eyes. Other managers see different things.

"We saw they had some talent and believed they could fit into our system. There is always a risk. You don't know how they will adapt to new training methods, a new team, a new league, a new city.

"But we believed they all had a good work ethic and a good attitude. None of them had played top league football before so this was an opportunity they had been waiting for.

"There were two ways they could have gone coming here and seeing Tynecastle full, and then playing Celtic and Rangers. They could have been overawed and drifted away or else they'd step up to the challenge.

"They've all done that and beating Hearts, Celtic and now Rangers has given them a huge lift. They believe in themselves. It's not only the job of the management team to get them fit and organised but to give them the confidence to play with a freedom which was perhaps stifled wherever they were in the past."