How 'James Bond' might help Hearts overcome injury crisis

No Lawrence Shankland. No Cammy Devlin. No problem? The next six to eight weeks will reveal all.

On the injury front, Scottish Premiership leaders Heart of Midlothian had a week from hell, losing two of their main men for up to two months amid a captivating title charge.

Head coach Derek McInnes has previously referred to the club's transformational access to recruitment tool Jamestown Analytics as "James Bond" stuff.

With onlookers expecting the Gorgie sky to fall, now is the opportunity for the Hearts boss to make use of his secret agents with history on the line.

As Celtic prepare to travel to Tynecastle on Sunday with the chance to narrow the gap at the top to three points, are we about to see the true power of Jamestown?

Imagine it. Rogers Mato - does that translate to Roger Moore? - kicks in the front doors at Tynecastle at 14:55 on Sunday, dressed in a tuxedo, after skidding into the car park in his Aston Martin.

And, yet, that still wouldn't be the maddest thing to have happened in Scottish football this season.

McInnes is hopeful his new forward, brought in from North Macedonian league leaders Vardar, will be available to him at the weekend, pending paperwork approval.

Waiting around for work permit and visa issues to be cleared doesn't feel very 007, but the fast-tracked arrival of the 22-year-old, who had agreed to join as a free agent in the summer, comes at a good time for Hearts following Shankland's injury.

Capable of operating anywhere across the attack, Mato will arrive in fantastic form, having netted 12 goals in 13 games in the North Macedonia's top tier during the first half of this season.

The Uganda international also scored at the recent Africa Cup of Nations in a group defeat by Nigeria.

However, it feels more likely that Pierre Landry Kabore, who was plucked from Estonia's top flight last summer, will be Shankland's replacement on Sunday at least.

The 24-year-old scored a double against Dundee - his only Hearts goals - in one of his five league starts in November.

Kazakhstan winger Islam Chesnokov has also been signed this month to boost attacking options, along with Dutch right-back Jordi Altena.

A bid was rejected for Forest Green Rovers midfielder Laurent Mendy, before Scotland Under-21 international Marc Leonard - a former youth player for Hearts - arrived on loan from Birmingham City.

In the face of adversity, Hearts are clearly not standing still.

"The ability to react to a situation is always reassuring for a manager," McInnes said. "A lot of the time it's 'the budget's the budget' and sometimes the answer's 'no'.

"The majority of the time in my career the answer's been 'no', but this time there are people here who are keen to try and support because we're in a brilliant position."

It all feels very Football Manager. From Real Madrid to Rochdale, East Kilbride to Everton, every player with at least 3,000 senior minutes has a Jamestown rating.

In a revealing interview with Open Goal, external, McInnes said the process starts with him asking for a specific profile of player, then the scouting gurus get to work.

Some recommendations - and eventual signings - are plucked from obscure places, but McInnes and his staff will watch clips extensively before deciding whether the club should pursue.

The Hearts boss has been surprised by the ratings of some players in the Scottish game and joked that summer acquisition Stuart Findlay is rated higher by him than Jamestown.

Scoring well - and being affordable - sometimes isn't enough. During face-to-face talks with a target last summer, McInnes turned down a player who seemed uninterested.

For Braga, it was the opposite. "He couldn't have done any more to convince me," McInnes said.

The Portuguese forward, who has 12 goals in 28 Hearts games, has been one of the standout attackers in the country this season, alongside winger Alexandros Kyziridis, who has created the most chances in the Premiership this term.

Braga, who was playing in Norway's second tier, and his Greek team-mate, brought in from Slovakia, are the clearest indications in the current Hearts side that Jamestown is primed to be integral to a successful era to Tynecastle.

Whether that success brings instant Premiership glory could be determined by how the software helps McInnes get through the next two months.