Hearts boss in Severin sweat

MARK BONTHRONE

HEARTS boss Craig Levein was today worrying over the fitness of Scott Severin as he faced up to the prospect of being without three first squad midfielders for the second Edinburgh derby of the season tomorrow afternoon.

Severin has been struggling to shake off a groin strain over the past couple of days but with Phil Stamp suspended and Steven Boyack ruled out with a hernia problem the Scotland internationalist will be given until the last minute to prove his fitness.

With Stamp already missing Levein will be desperate to have the experience of Severin in the centre of the pitch as the Jambos look to gain revenge for the last-gasp defeat they suffered at Easter Road earlier in the season.

Should Severin not recover in time however, it’s likely Neil MacFarlane will come into the team to replace him.

Levein said: "Seve is a doubt as he has a groin strain which hasn’t cleared up as well as we would have hoped so he’s a doubt.

"We’ll give him until tomorrow though to see how he is as he’s an important player."

There was better news on the injury front however with Levein confirming that captain Steven Pressley, who lost a couple of teeth in an accidental collision with Patrick Kluivert while on international duty in midweek, would be available to play.

Meanwhile, Levein has insisted that the key to the Tynecastle men winning the derby is for the players to continue playing the way they have been in recent weeks and not get caught up in the special atmosphere the game brings.

Earlier in the season the Jambos left Leith empty handed when Garry O’Connor scored an injury-time winner despite the Hibees playing with ten men for almost an hour after the sending-off of Grant Brebner.

Levein believes that his players failed to take advantage of their numerical advantage on that occasion because they allowed the atmosphere to get to them and he has urged them to keep a clear head this time round.

"We will have to concentrate really hard to try and get a victory. In the last derby I don’t think the players thought very clearly after the sending-off and we didn’t manage to keep possession which is what eventually cost us.

"We need to try and keep playing football and use the assets that we have. You have to have your good players playing well and not just scrap and battle. That’s the way to win a derby and that’s what we will be trying to do.

"We want to try and extend this run that we are on at the moment. Games like this I think mean more to the fans than even those against Celtic and Rangers and we want to win it for them.

"As far as they are concerned this is the big one and the players realise that to lose the game is a huge disappointment to the supporters."

Taken from the Scotsman