Boyack defends Pressley

PAUL KIDDIE

HEARTS star Steven Boyack today sprang to the defence of skipper Steven Pressley after the disappointing draw with Livingston, telling fans: "don’t blame Elvis for the dropped points."

With Kevin McKenna having opened the scoring after 18 minutes, the Jambos looked on course for victory over the CIS Cup winners until the Scotland man’s second-half blunder gifted Colin McMenamin the equaliser.

Pressley’s attempted back header to Craig Gordon was woefully short and McMenamin made the most of the opportunity to slam home his third goal in successive games with 17 minutes remaining.

Fortunately for Hearts, the result didn’t have a serious impact on the race for Europe with nearest rivals Dunfermline also having to settle for a draw at home to Dundee United, the Fifers remaining eight points adrift of Craig Levein’s side with just five matches left to play.

"To be fair to Elvis he held his hands up after the game in the dressing-room," said Boyack, who made his first appearance following a seven-month injury lay-off against the Lions.

"These things don’t usually happen to him. He is our top player and I’m sure we can forgive him what happened.

"I wouldn’t blame him for the result - he came to our rescue after the equaliser with a great goal-saving tackle which showed his quality.

"I wouldn’t worry about it affecting him either. He’s an experienced player and we’ll all be trying to bounce back against Celtic this weekend."

While admitting he was at fault at the equaliser, Pressley insisted Hearts should have had the points wrapped up well before McMenamin’s strike.

He said: "We played really well in the first half against Livingston on Saturday, played some decent stuff and were in control before they scored.

"We really should have had the game won before their equaliser.

"But I am not going to let this affect my confidence.

"Sometimes you go through spells when you don’t get what you deserve out of games and it just seems that we are going through one of those phases at the moment."

Hearts are scheduled to take on Livingston in the Under-21 league at Almondvale this evening, kick-off 7pm.

• HEARTS defeated Partick Thistle 3-1 in the Under-19 league at the weekend.

Ryan Gay grabbed a double with John Neill also on the scoresheet.

Hearts: Windrum, Thomson, Pelosi, Sives, Tierney, Gay, Gardiner (Driver), Kennedy (Neill), Armstrong (Strickland), Elliot, MacLeod.

Taken from the Scotsman