DE VRIES THANKFUL FOR HIS FOUR-TUNE

Hearts' new summer signing Mark de Vries has put his four-goal haul against Hibernian down to luck.

The modest Dutchman has refused to take the credit for the goals which handed the Tynecastle side one of their greatest derby victories.

Andy Kirk set the ball rolling for Hearts by opening the scoring after 18 minutes.

But it was de Vries who stole the show by netting five minutes before the break before grabbing another three goals in the second half to secure a memorable 5-1 win.

But the former Dordrecht striker - who was head coach Craig Levein's first capture of the close season - reckons the rest of the team played a bigger part in the game than he did.

And he has urged the Hearts supporters not to expect such impressive goal-scoring exploits every week.

He said: "For Hearts it was a great day and for me to score four goals was just lucky.

"Hopefully the supporters won't expect this every week!

"I was extremely lucky to score four goals but a lot of that was down to the way the team worked.

"It felt very good, and it still does, but it isn't about me - it's about Hearts."

He added: "I scored four goals in a friendly match about six years ago but not since then.

"I think the whole team did something wonderful. The confidence was unbelievable and at half-time we just told each other to keep up the good work."

De Vries was making his home debut against Hibs and the game was also his first as part of the starting line-up after battling back from injury.

Although he has now recovered from that injury, the striker is not yet fully match-fit - an admission that will not be welcomed by defences around Scotland.

He claims he was suffering from cramp just 20 minutes into the game and was so sure he would be replaced that he started to walk off the pitch when the fourth official signalled that Hearts were making a change.

De Vries said: "After 20 minutes I could feel cramp in my right calf and two minutes later I started feeling it in my left so I was really struggling.

"I was standing in front of Peter Houston and I said to him that I had cramp and I thought they were going to take me off but then they took Andy Kirk off.

"So I was very surprised and I'd already started walking off the park."


Taken from sportinglife.com