Caretaker manager Stevie Frail has admitted Hearts need an influx of new talent this summer after a season of disappointments.
The Tynecastle side missed out on the opportunity to guarantee a seventh-place finish the term when they went down 2-1 away to Falkirk on Monday night.
The Gorgie men still have a two-point advantage over their opponents but are desperate for victories over Kilmarnock on Saturday and Gretna next Tuesday to conclude a poor campaign with a flourish.
Youngsters Gary Glen, the SPL's young player of the month for April, and Jason Thomson have given Hearts a spark in recent weeks but they could not raise their game enough to make it three wins in a row against the Bairns.
And Frail has confessed he is already looking ahead to the new season and identifying players who can help ensure the lows of the past 10 months are not repeated.
He said: "They're still big games for us and it's important we go and win Saturday's game against Kilmarnock and then hopefully beat Gretna on Tuesday night to finish the season on what will be a tiny, tiny high.
"To go with younger players next season you need to make sure you have quality and experience round about them.
"We need to make sure the ones that do come in enhance us, and there are good players out there who could do that and make us a better team.
"Glen has shown in the last few weeks how good a player he could be.
"But it would be unfair to pin everything on him at the minute, so we need players in and around him to take the pressure off him and help him develop.
"But there's a few we need to bring in to make that happen."
Falkirk counterpart John Hughes pitched in a youngster of his own, Chris Mitchell, for his first SPL start and was delighted with the 19-year-old's mature display beside fellow teenager Scott Arfield, 20-year-old Tam Scobbie and 23-year-old skipper Darren Barr.
He said: "Once again the pleasing thing for me was that there was three players from the under-19s in there, with Scobbie, Arfield and Mitchell, and also Darren Barr, who is a little bit older than them.
"They're four guys who have all come through the system and they are playing their part. That's very, very pleasing."
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