Skipper's return can drive us on, insists Severin

Mark Bonthrone

HEARTS star Scott Severin will be delighted to hand the captain’s armband back to Steven Pressley for tomorrow’s clash with Dundee, insisting no-one can fill that role like Elvis.

The former Rangers defender will take his place at the heart of the Jambos defence after a thigh injury forced him to miss the last few games and while Severin has enjoyed his stint leading out the team, he is in no doubt that the Gorgie side have missed Pressley’s leadership.

Alan Maybury took over the job of captaining the side when Pressley was initially ruled out but when he too was sidelined through a two-match suspension after going through the disciplinary threshold, Severin was handed the responsibility by boss Craig Levein.

A narrow defeat at Ibrox, followed by a lacklustre 0-0 draw with Motherwell at Tynecastle last weekend did not lessen Severin’s enjoyment of captaining the side but he says he is delighted that Pressley will be returning to the role.

He said: "Elvis is a great captain and great talker on the park and there is no doubt that we’ve missed that.

"I’ve enjoyed my time captaining the club and it’s something that I’ve done before but Elvis is definitely the right man to do it whenever he is available.

"It’s always good to have him in the team and he’s never scared to have a blast at you if he feels you need it.

"He leads by example so I won’t be too disappointed to have to give it back to him."

Tomorrow’s trip to Dens Park sees the Jambos return to the scene of their CIS Cup fourth-round defeat to Jim Duffy’s side and Severin admits that this will provide the team with an added incentive to claim all three points from the game.

He said: "We were disappointed with the result in the cup and they gave us a really tough game. The players want to make up for that result and it should spur the lads on.

"We didn’t play that badly in the cup game and the result came at a time when we just weren’t getting the breaks. Hopefully, it will be different this time round.

"We’ve been playing reasonably well away from home so far this season and we are keen to keep that up."

Dundee have certainly had their troubles to seek off the pitch this season as the club was forced into administration necessitating the sale of some of the bigger names at the club. Results, however, have not suffered in the way that many people predicted and Severin is warning that the cutbacks at the club could actually have had a unifying effect making them even more dangerous opposition.

"I think what has happened up at Dundee has actually brought the players closer together," said Severin.

"They seem to have a real fight about them now and we will have to match that.

"We know it’s going to be a difficult game but we will have a few players back who have been missing in recent weeks and that will help us."

The desire Severin believes will be needed on Tayside tomorrow has been apparent in his own displays this term as he has battled through the pain barrier to turn out for the Tynecastle side on a regular basis.

Despite being out of contract in the summer with his future looking likely to lie outwith Gorgie, the 24-year-old has been turning out for the Jambos despite the problem to help ease their injury and suspension problems.

He will see a specialist early in the new year to try and solve the problem once and for all but during his bid to shake off the injury he has continued to turn in the kind of performances that the Hearts fans have become accustomed to.

He led by example in defence against both Rangers and Motherwell when he was used as an emergency centre-half but the player who has eight Scotland caps to his name was quick to play down his own contribution to the club’s surge into third place in the SPL table, insisting it has been a team effort.

He said: "I helped out in defence in the last couple of games because we were a bit short and I thought I did okay considering my preferred position is in midfield.

"The groin thing has bothered me a wee bit but I have always wanted to play for the club and help them when I can.

"Obviously with Elvis coming back into the defence he is likely to take my place and I just have to hope that I can switch back into the midfield because the guys there have been playing really well this season.

"There is no guarantee of just walking back into the midfield or any position and I think that is part of the reason why the team had done well this season.

"We have stuttered a wee bit in the last few games so it’s important that we try and pick up some points from this game. We know it won’t be easy but the guys are confident in their ability so we just have to go there and give it our best shot."

Taken from the Scotsman