Severin puts Hearts first

MIKE AITKEN AT EAST END PARK

Dunfermline 0
Hearts 1
Pressley (57)
Referee: K Clark. Attendance: 6,968

ALTHOUGH his first priority is to help Hearts play in Europe next season, Scott Severin’s desire to try his hand in English football when his contract runs out will not be at the expense of the club he’s served for the past eight years. "I know Hearts have lost players to other clubs for nothing and I don’t want to see that happen again," insisted the Scotland midfielder yesterday.

On the books with the club he supported as a lad since 1995, Severin was sympathetic to Hearts’ plight when contract talks last month failed to produce agreement on a new deal. Rather than putting personal interests first, Severin agreed to leave in the summer if a buyer can be found.

Ambitious to follow in the footsteps of his former team-mate, Colin Cameron, and make a name for himself in English football, Severin is also happy to see Hearts compensated for the part they’ve played in his development. "I want the club to get something for me," he went on. "I know they’re still in a fair bit of debt and it may help if they can get some money in for me.

"I’ve got another year of my contract still to run, but if no-one wants to come in for me then it’s out of my hands and I’ll see the deal out. Right now, all I want to concentrate on is playing for Hearts and trying to get them into Europe."

As Severin himself was quick to point out, of course, the way he performed during the first half of a poor match at East End Park on Saturday was more likely to win him a move to Boghead than the Bernabeu. A sequence of misplaced passes on Severin’s part was typical of a dour contest played in blustery conditions on a bumpy pitch.

In fairness to Hearts, the Edinburgh club recovered from a sluggish start to overcome Dunfermline thanks to a brighter second-half display which gave them an edge both in terms of physique as well as enterprise. By the end, the European challengers thoroughly deserved their victory.

Powerful up front where the marauding Mark De Vries was a real handful for Lee Bullen - the big Dutchman picked up a hamstring injury and will miss Saturday’s match against Kilmarnock - Hearts bulldozed their way to victory. It was De Vries’ knack of getting in front of Bullen which proved a problem for the Fifers and the centre-forward’s presence forced the award of a second-half penalty which Steven Pressley tucked into the corner of the net.

Overall, Hearts were too strong in every department for a disappointing Dunfermline outfit which was too easily brushed aside.

The favourites for a place in next season’s UEFA Cup, on the other hand, have been far less fragile since coach Craig Levein took his squad to Portugal for the winter break and taught the players more about a 4-4-2 system which borrows a few tricks from Dundee United’s book In the Eighties and involves defending from the front.

Individually, the arrival of Tepi Moilanen in goal and the emergence of Andy Webster as Pressley’s partner in central defence have also been factors in dispensing with the brittle veneer which cost Hearts a few heavy defeats before the break.

Not surprisingly, Levein doesn’t want to see Webster, who is in the Scotland squad to face Austria, built up beyond his capabilities only to fall and damage his future development. It goes without saying the Hearts coach is at odds with Scotland’s Berti Vogts on this subject and regards the German’s comments about Webster being one of the best players for his age in Europe as unhelpful hype.

Bearing in mind Webster, 21, has only recently commanded a regular first team place at Tynecastle, Levein hopes future comments from the Scotland camp will be more cautious. "I find it surprising to hear Andy talked about as one of the most promising players when he’s not yet had an opportunity to establish himself," he said. "Don’t get me wrong, Andy is a player with a big future. But I don’t want to see him built up to be knocked down."

Taken from the Scotsman