Maybury reveals Hearts' new target

MARK BONTHRONE

HEARTS star Alan Maybury today insisted that nobody at the club is preparing to ease up for the final two matches of the season, revealing that beating last season’s points tally is the next target in the players’ sights.

The Tynecastle outfit finally secured third spot in the table with a hard-fought but well-deserved 2-1 victory over Dunfermline at the weekend, sparking wild celebrations when referee Kevin Toner sounded the final whistle.

However, rather than taking it easy now their main aim of the season has been accomplished, the Republic of Ireland internationalist says he and his team-mates want to show they are improving year on year by surpassing the total of points gained in the last campaign.

The Jambos currently sit on 62 points, just one short of last season’s final reckoning, and although the former Leeds United full-back is confident the side have already demonstrated they are a better team than last year by getting closer to the Old Firm, he admits it would be nice to also better the points total.

"The main thing this season was to finish third again as it’s not something many side’s manage - and now that we’ve done that it would be good to beat last season’s points total," he said.

"That would give us something to aim at for our last two games of the season as we want to get as many points as we can.

"We are one worse off than what we finished with last season so we know that a win would see us improve on that. It’s little things like that we are now aiming at because the more wee records we beat the better the season becomes.

"I think last year we ended up six points clear of fourth place and some way behind second and while we are already closer to second this year it would be great to get as big a gap between ourselves and everybody else."

While the Capital club have stuttered towards the finishing line in recent weeks, having occupied third spot since a 4-1 thrashing of Partick Thistle way back on October 25 last year, Maybury believes nobody can grudge his side finishing ‘best of the rest’ for a second successive season.

"We have been in third for a long time and were there on merit," he said.

"Against Dunfermline on Saturday we made it hard for ourselves, as usual, by going a goal down. But we came back well and showed the kind of character that has been there for probably a couple of seasons now. We have shown we are able to come back late on in games and everyone keeps going right to the end of games. When you do that, nine times out of ten you get the results that you deserve and I think we deserve to be in third place again this season."

And Saturday’s result, which means the Jambos have now lost just one game in their last 15, sets them up nicely for tomorrow night’s trip to Ibrox where the visitors will be hoping to get the win they need to beat last term’s points haul.

"We have done quite well against the Old Firm recently so we can go there with confidence," he said. "At Celtic Park a few weeks ago we did really well and should have won that game, and the last couple of games here we have done not bad at all.

"We know that it will be a difficult match but having come close to beating them the last few times we have played them, it would be nice to actually finally do it." The Gorgie outfit have been able to get closer to Rangers this season and Maybury is confident his side can improve next term. However, he admits that keeping in touch with the Old Firm looks like being an even tougher task next season.

Rangers have just announced the signing of Monaco striker Dado Prso while Celtic have been linked with Brazilian World Cup winner Rivaldo.

And although Maybury concedes Hearts will never be able to compete for the signature of players of that stature he believes the team spirit that is being fostered at Tynecastle can go a long way to bridging the gap.

He said: "They are getting 50,000 fans every week so we can only try and do our best to keep up with them. They can buy six World Cup winners and there is nothing that we can do about that; we just have to focus on what we can influence and that’s how we play every week.

"There is a great spirit at the club and we have consistently won the battle between ourselves and everyone else by finishing third and we just have to try and raise it further to compete with the Old Firm."

Taken from the Scotsman