CRAIG Levein no longer spends his international weeks agonising over international selections but he continues to do Scottish football a service. By recruiting Tony Watt and John Souttar in the space of the last eight months, the Hearts director of football has handed manager Robbie Neilson ownership of two great reclamation projects in our game right now.

Both of these young men have enough years ahead of them to do the national team quite a turn should their careers continue to progress in the positive manner with which they have started this campaign. While the former, on-loan from Charlton Athletic and onto his eighth club by the age of 22, issued a reminder of what he could yet offer with the instinctive last-minute winner against Partick Thistle which broke his Hearts duck and moved the Tynecastle club menacingly into third in the Ladbrokes Premiership table, the latter was putting in the kind of accomplished display at the back which means he is still the best bet in the hunt for the next great Scottish centre half.

Souttar will spend international week with Ricky Sbragia's Under-21 side rather than the full team but a run of games in his favoured position has confounded the critics who at times last season appeared to have written him off for 'overplaying' too much or not being robust enough for the Scottish game. That always seemed a bit over the top for a 19-year-old who was shunted around a few different positions, not least as the £47.5m transfer of John Stones from Everton to Manchester City this summer only illustrated the premium that some are prepared to pay for a ball-playing centre half.

Indeed, given that Scotland's options in that position as we enter the World Cup qualifying campaign against Malta on Saturday are Gordon Greer, 35, Russell Martin, 30, Christophe Berra, 31, and Grant Hanley, 24, perhaps Souttar should be regarded less as one for the future and more one whose time is now.

"John is a great player," said Hearts' USA international and holding midfielder Perry Kitchen. "What is he? 19? That's hard to believe, ridiculous. He definitely has the talent, the size and the athleticism and the passing ability to really do well here. He absolutely [can step up to international football]. He is a great talent with a great mentality, which is huge the higher you go. It’s only a matter of time for him."

The same applies to Watt, on the week that Celtic being drawn against Barcelona in the Champions League saw his famous goal against the Catalan giants being shown more frequently than the Zapruder footage. It was Kitchen who inadvertantly got the assist, by blocking Abdul Osman's attempted clearance following a Don Cowie cross.

"He [Watt] has told me about it a few times," joked Kitchen. "It’s obviously a big moment in his career and he definitely lets us hear about it. Not many people can say that so it’s an awesome milestone. For sure [he could be in the Scotland squad too]. He has great talent as well - the ability to take guys on, beat them and make the final pass. The goal was coming for him. He hadn’t quite found the net yet, but to do it in that that fashion, I am really happy for him."

After a quiet start, the last few weeks have suggested that Hearts could yet be Celtic's closest challengers this season. Kitchen for one feels they can give the Parkhead side a run for their money. "Definitely," said the 24-year-old from Indianapolis. "I mean, that’s our goal right? We’re not, at the start of the season, saying we want to come in third place. You want to win trophies. We know they’re a great side, but that’s the goal for sure."

While they weren't at their fluent best here, Kitchen was correct to point out that these kind of wins are perhaps even more memorable than 5-1 routs like that against Inverness last week. A headed goal from Callum Paterson, for whom the club are bracing themselves for a further offer from Wigan Athletic, opened the scoring, before an identical header from Liam Lindsay - another central defender omitted from a Scotland squad this week - gave the hosts a deserved equaliser.

Chris Erskine, who didn't deserve to be on the losing side, said there were positives to take from the performance - their second narrow 2-1 defeat in back-to-back weeks against a supposed title challenger. "That is the last two weeks we have deserved something out of the game, against better opposition, teams who finished higher than us last season," Erskine said. "We didn't feel like the goal was coming so it was a sickener."