Tyncastle holds the key for Hearts claims Stamp

Graeme Croser

MIDFIELDER Phil Stamp believes Tynecastle could be Hearts’ biggest weapon as they strive to end their losing streak.

The Jambos have lost four games on the bounce, the first defeat coming in the Uefa Cup tie against Bordeaux at home and the next three on the road through visits to Dundee United, Dundee and Dunfermline.

Despite that sorry sequence, head coach Craig Levein has refused to push the panic button, outlining the lack of luck which has affected his players while talking up their efforts.

Jambos fans could be forgiven for thinking ‘what if’ especially after the magnificent 1-0 victory in Bordeaux in the Uefa Cup first leg.

Stamp agrees that fortune has not favoured the Gorgie outfit, but knows they can’t rely on fate and have to stop the rot themselves. He admits it might require an even greater effort, but believes the backing of the Tynecastle crowd can spur the team on when Kilmarnock come calling tomorrow afternoon.

He said: "We need a win, that’s the bottom line. We’ve lost four on the trot, two in the league, and we want to get back on the rails tomorrow. I think the fact the match is at Tynecastle will give us a lift. Our home form is very good and has been over the 16 months I’ve been at the club.

"Good teams build their success on their home form and from there you try and pick up what you can on the road. I think Tynecastle is especially good for us in the way it is set up.

"The crowd is really close to the pitch and when they get behind us it can make it very difficult for the opposition.

"I wouldn’t really want to say too much about any plans to move from Tynecastle to Murrayfield because that’s a matter for the board not the players.

"All I can say is that when we went to Murrayfield for a practice game recently the facilities were first class and I can see how it would be advantageous from that point of view."

The former Middlesbrough midfielder believes the Jambos might have to grind out the result tomorrow - with the quality of performance coming second in terms of importance.

He continued: "I just think we have to keep doing what we have been doing and hopefully the win will arrive.

"The result is definitely more important than the performance tomorrow. We need three points to keep us secure in third place and if we get them we know we would stay there even if we were to lose our next game against Rangers.

"We’re not going to go overboard about the fact we haven’t won for a while. We had a run of six wins in a row before the Bordeaux match which was fantastic but we knew that it had to come to an end at some point.

"It did and the same applies to the current run.

"We’ve watched the videos of the matches and we can honestly say we’ve been unlucky. But we want to be able to stop coming out and saying that.

"We’ve not been playing badly but we can play better and that’s probably what we’re going to have to do to get the victory.

"We were playing a lot better this time last year and I don’t think we’ve really hit those heights again this season.

"We’re creating chances though which is the main thing and if we keep doing that we have the sort of players who can take them.

"I don’t think confidence is really an issue at the moment. None of the lads are down about how things have been going. It might be different if we’d been playing dreadfully but we’ve not.

"The run of defeats started with the Bordeaux match but I don’t think there’s been a hangover from that night.

"It was an unbelievable achievement to get the result we did over in France but we always knew the second leg was going to be extremely tough and so it proved.

"Most of us hadn’t played in Europe before so it was a real learning experience but hopefully we’ll be better for it."

Skipper Steven Pressley could return to the starting line-up after missing the last four games with a thigh injury.

The Scotland defender returned to full training yesterday and Stamp hopes he is back to lead the team out against Jim Jefferies’ Ayrshiremen.

He added: "Having Steven back would be a big plus. He has been a massive loss in the time he has been out. He is a big leader and you can see just how much he has been missed from our results. If he is going to play tomorrow it will certainly help us and I think everyone would welcome that. I’ve only known of him since I came to Hearts but over the first few games he was one of the ones who really stood out.

"At the time he had barely been capped for Scotland and I couldn’t understand why.

"Since he made the breakthrough into the international side I think he has shown everybody that he deserves to be there and his performances at club level have also been of a very high standard."

Taken from the Scotsman