Those encounters of the third kind suit Hearts

PAUL FORSYTH

IF THE Old Firm’s most vociferous critics are to be believed, the Scottish Premierleague would be better off without them. The top flight, they say, would be less predictable, more competitive and unlikely to tempt its rank-and-file members into the kind of financial mismanagement that has come with chasing Celtic and Rangers.

Hearts, though, are stretching the credibility of that theory with every passing week. Were neither of the Glasgow rivals competing in this season’s championship, leaving the rest to contest a title of their own, the Tynecastle side would be running away with it, for the second consecutive year, leaving others bemused as to how they could be caught.

Craig Levein’s astute management of the Edinburgh club has enabled them to rearrange the familiar strata of the Premierleague.

They used to say that, after the inevitable romp clear by Celtic and Rangers, you could throw a blanket over the rest. Now Rangers are closer to Hearts (between whom the gap is 13 points) than they are to Celtic (16 points), and it would take a billowing monstrosity of a bedcover to smother the league’s 12 member clubs.

With 12 matches left, 35 points already separate third place from bottom, a margin that didn’t develop until the end of last season.

There is even a slim possibility that, with Rangers visiting Tynecastle in the Premierleague on Saturday, Hearts could soon contemplate leapfrogging the troubled Ibrox club. However dismissive the supporters are of a move to Murrayfield, it would be a tasty venue for Champions League football next season.

"I still think we’re a bit short of the Old Firm, but if we can close any type of gap, then great," says Peter Houston, the club’s assistant manager, who prefers to focus his mind on making third place a mathematical certainty.

Hearts’ claim on that position is becoming increasingly convincing. Assuming they close out their nine-point lead over Dunfermline, it would be the fourth time in the last seven seasons that they have been the best of the rest. More pertinently, perhaps, they would be the first team since Motherwell in 1995 to follow a third place with the same or better.

A lengthy string of clubs have succumbed since then to third-place syndrome, a curious affliction which causes them to follow success with a slump. In 1999, 12 months after Hearts had won the Scottish Cup and run the Old Firm close in the league, they fell into the trap that in recent years has also caught Hibs (twice), Aberdeen, St Johnstone, Dundee United and Livingston.

Houston, who fulfilled various coaching duties under Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown in those days, recalls the team being second-bottom of the league when they faced Dunfermline Athletic in a crunch match at Tynecastle in May of that season.

"I remember Jim, Billy and myself being quite stressed out about the fact you could go from the high of third to second bottom. Maybe teams were trying harder because we had won the cup and had a great league campaign the season before, but we just didn’t have players who were hungry. Maybe they thought they had done it.

"This time, the beauty of finishing third has been that the guys are striving harder to maintain it.

"What we have brought to the club is hungry players. Players like Alan Maybury who only got a wee sniff, in a peripheral way, of the Leeds first team and came up here hungry to do better. Patrick Kisnorbo came here from Australia with a lot to prove, hungry to be successful. Neil MacFarlane hadn’t done an awful lot, so he was the same. Phil Stamp was in and out at Middlesbrough, but not really a regular, so he comes up here and shows a bit of desire. Mark de Vries comes from the second division in Dutch football, hungry to better himself.

"That’s what we’ve tried to do: get players who want to better themselves. We want guys who are hungry. Every one of those guys has strived to do better, and some have worked beyond our imagination."

Hearts’ attempt to squeeze all remaining life from the race for a UEFA Cup place continues at Rugby Park today, where they play Kilmarnock, themselves unable to prevent a slide this season. With Kisnorbo and Paul Hartley suspended, and De Vries an injury doubt, it will be no formality against a team who, with Jefferies and several other former Hearts men in their ranks, will be anxious to raise their game.

Houston believes that, just as teams reserve their best efforts for matches against the Old Firm, they also produce unusual energy when Hearts provide the opposition. It is not the only challenge that comes with leading a chasing pack. Hearts, like Celtic, find themselves having to defend their style, which some believe is too physical, and without the guile becoming of a side in their position. Houston was dismayed by suggestions after last week’s scoreless draw with Dunfermline that Hearts were not a creative side.

"If you look at the league table, outwith the Old Firm who has scored the most goals? Heart of Midlothian. And who has conceded the least goals outwith the Old Firm? Heart of Midlothian. We are the only team in the SPL outwith the Old Firm who have a positive goal difference.

"We are maybe not given the credit we deserve. It sometimes annoys us a bit when they call us a big strong team. So what, if we are strong? Because big strong teams have to score goals too, and you have to create chances to score goals.

"I don’t think it’s a jealousy thing, but everyone's trying to beat us because we are the third best team, and that’s a compliment."

The next big test for Hearts will be in the summer when, yet again, their manager will be forced to slash the wage bill. His repeated success with scant resources, as well as the growing need for others to make similar sacrifices, is such that his team’s supporters will not be unduly worried.

Taken from the Scotsman