HEARTS will start searching in earnest next week for the width which head coach Craig Levein believes could play a crucial part in ensuring the club attain higher standards next season than they’ve been able to achieve over the past year.

Levein wants to recruit not one but two wide players for the challenges ahead and will give a trial to Dutch internationalist Dries Boussatta on Monday evening if clearance arrives in time.

Boussatta, 28, is out of contract this summer with AZ Alkmaar in Holland and hopes to persuade Hearts to offer him a new deal. "One of our contacts in Holland tipped us off about the player and we spoke to his agent before bringing him over on a trial basis," said the coach.

"He’s played four times for Holland and clearly has a decent pedigree. We like to try and keep these things quiet because everyone assumes if you bring someone in on trial then you’re automatically going to sign him. That’s not the case. But, of course, you can never keep anything quiet in football for long."

Meantime, Andy Kirk went to see a specialist in Paisley for another opinion on a persistent back problem which may require an operation. Whether the striker will be better served by surgery or rest remains to be seen, but the forward will have little involvement in the rest of Hearts’ season.

Apart from Kirk, midfield player Steve Fulton will also miss out on the trip to Rugby Park through illness. However, Alan Maybury will return from suspension at right-back, leaving Thomas Flogel to move back to his favoured role in midfield.

Kilmarnock are just behind fourth-placed Aberdeen in the table and although they face a difficult task catching Livingston in third, there is still a chance of closing the ten-point gap.

Despite their lofty position, Kilmarnock manager Bobby Williamson is playing down the possibility of playing in Europe next season.

He said: "To be honest, thinking of trying to get a place in Europe doesn’t really concern me just now. I am just bothered about how the team are doing at the moment and the game against Hearts on Saturday."

Hearts outcast Gary McSwegan has joined Luton Town on a one-month loan after impressing as a trialist in a reserve match.

Joe Kinnear, manager of the Nationwide Division 3 side, said: "He’s a Teddy Sheringham type, but quicker of thought - a brilliant brain. Gary always picks out the right pass. He can disguise it, he can mix it and he’s a great finisher as well.

"I only agreed to pay well under half his salary, which is £1,500-a-week of the £3,600-a-week that he is on at Hearts.

"The wages might be a stumbling block to a permanent deal, but then it would be up to Gary to realise what league he’s playing in."

Taken from the Scotsman