Kirk the king of bouncing back

Moira Gordon

ANDY Kirk is the epitome of Craig Levein’s Hearts - a hard-working winner who refuses to concede defeat until the whistle blows and, most tellingly of all, possessed of the ability to bounce back from disappointment and make others pay.

The latest of those disappointments came in Bordeaux on Thursday. As ecstatic as anyone with what amounted to arguably the club’s best-ever European away result, he would have preferred to have had more than a watching brief. Five goals in seven appearances thus far this term (although he points out that he’s only made three starts, from which four of those goals have come), the Belfast lad is enjoying a rich seam of form, which made his midweek role as bench-warmer all the tougher to take.

It says much that Kirk was the only player taken aside by the manager and offered an explanation for his omission from the starting 11.

"I spoke to him midweek and, funnily enough, he knew. He’d guessed," said Levein. "Provided we can get the ball into the other team’s box there’s nobody better than Kirky but we didn’t think we’d manage that over there, so it was a tactical decision. He’s the only one I spoke to about leaving out, because I had valid and obvious reasons for the others but I felt he was entitled to that."

But like the Hearts team in general, adept at bouncing back from even sizeable defeats to take victory in their next fixture, Kirk has already switched his focus to this afternoon’s SPL encounter at Pittodrie.

"I think things like that make you even tougher, you have to be. What you realise as a footballer is that a week in football really is a long time. And you just need to keep yourself sharp and focused because at the end of the day you could be back in for the next game, and if you’re not prepared right then you could go back out of the team. It’s important that you are strong mentally. Thursday was a great result but now it’s back to work again and it’s important to get three points. At the end of the day it’s the league form that will make sure we stay in that competition [UEFA Cup] for next year as well."

Provided he maintains his current form and adds consistency to his obvious goal-getting skills, there’s every reason to believe Kirk will still be around next term to enjoys the fruits of those labours. Another cull is expected at the club in the summer, with the wage bill needing trimmed yet further as the money belts are tightened another notch. With a comparative wealth of striking options, with Kirk, Mark de Vries, Dennis Wyness, Gary Wales and Graham Weir all fighting for starting places, that area may be one of the first to feel the pinch.

‘I wanted to sort out the men from the boys and Andy has reacted well’

"I brought Dennis to the club in the summer to give us something we don’t have - we didn’t have a player who could play in the hole - and secondly I thought that by bringing somebody else in I could sort the men from the boys," says Levein. "I wanted to see who really wanted to play, see which ones would work even harder and rise to the challenge and Andy has certainly reacted positively.

"He’s had injuries and has had a run of maybe 12 games in the past before something’s happened, so he’s never really got to the position where he’s been No.1 striker. He hasn’t been consistent enough for that but he’s getting that wee bit older and doesn’t want to be in and out, he wants to be involved every week and, mentally, he’s a strong lad. He’s shown that by coming into the team and grasping the opportunity. He’ll always score goals but now I can see an improvement in him, he’s holding the ball up and his body shape is a lot better and his anticipation, which has always been good, is even better. He’s completely focused just now. He’s keen and he’s a smashing boy. He works hard, in the dressing room he’s good and he’s not a drinker or somebody who’s going to cause trouble. He’s just a decent, hard-working boy. He just needs to find that mental zone where he can keep churning out these performances. I want that consistency."

Kirk aims to oblige. Thirteen goals in the 2000-01 campaign was his best tally as a Hearts player since signing from Glentoran as a 19-year-old in February 1999. But now he’s hoping for improvement.

"Obviously, as a striker you always want to better the number of goals you get, and you’ve got to set your standards high and then try to achieve them. My aim is to stay in the team and score as many goals as I can."

In the season curtain-raiser, against today’s opponents at Tynecastle in August, he joined the fray in the 65th minute and the list of goalscorers in the 90th. It summed up Kirk. Disappointed to be left out, he bounced back and reminded us all that, in his mind anyway, it’s never over, till it’s over.

Taken from the Scotsman