Less conversation, a little more action is Maybury's goal

PAUL KIDDIE

HEARTS defender Alan Maybury hopes to let his football do all the talking this season as he bids to stay out of trouble with officialdom.

The Irishman was one of the Jambos’ most consistent performers last term but saw his campaign blighted by a succession of needless bookings for dissent.

The former Leeds United player was cautioned no fewer than 12 times as the Gorgie outfit stormed to a second successive third place finish in the SPL - his only red card came in the Tennent’s Scottish Cup defeat from Celtic in February.

He served a two-match suspension in December after crashing through the disciplinary points threshold and the accumulation of yellow cards eventually took a further toll with the 25-year-old left on the sidelines for the final two games of last season, the full-back just one more booking away from triggering a three-match ban which would have ruled him out of the big kick-off against Dundee.

Rather than see the full-back tread a disciplinary tightrope against Rangers and Motherwell, boss Craig Levein opted to leave him out of his plans with the Gorgie outfit already assured of a third-place finish.

It was a decision Maybury had no quarrel with but as he prepares to run out at Dens Park tomorrow, it will be an older and wiser character who will be going into battle.

Insisting he hopes to turn over a new leaf and try to bite his lip instead of letting rip at the men in the middle in the forthcoming campaign, the fiery Republic of Ireland internationalist knows his transgressions do no-one any favours. He said: "I was asked to sit out the last couple of games of the season as third place was already secured. Had it not been I may well have been put in. I understand why I was left out and it is no big deal.

"I am getting older and I’ll try to calm things down a bit. But if a tackle is there to be won, I’ll go in to win it. If it is mistimed then I’ll take the consequences.

"But there were stupid bookings I picked up last season after falling out with referees and that doesn’t do anyone any favours. They maybe came about as a result of frustration when I was feeling things maybe going against us and other times when it just wasn’t happening for us in games.

"One decision then maybe pushed me over the edge but that doesn’t solve anything as the referee is never going to change his mind.

"If I can play the game without being silly then that will be progress I suppose.

"As the manager said to me last season, I am no good to anyone when I am suspended. I am sitting on the sidelines unable to help the team or myself."

With Andy Webster and Jamie McAllister struggling to make the clash and Kevin McKenna already ruled out, Maybury is set to line up in a somewhat reshuffled rearguard.

The selection problems facing Levein - striker Mark de Vries is also missing with a hamstring injury - is hardly ideal with the new season just 24 hours away. But Maybury, who scored the winner the last time the teams met in Tayside on SPL business back in January, insists the Jambos will be ready for the challenge posed by Jim Duffy’s Dark Blues.

"It feels like one of the shortest pre-seasons we have done," he said. "We were only back for a few days and then flew off to Canada for a mix of training and games.

"We have one or two injuries for the game tomorrow but that is always going to happen in a season and when it does you just have to deal with it. Obviously we wanted as many of the guys as fit as possible for the start but I am sure that whoever does play will be itching to go.

"I was fortunate enough to score a late winner in our last league game at Dens and games are always difficult there. But it will be a good pitch with a decent crowd for the start of the new season. Both of us will be looking to get off to a good start. But we have prepared well and we’re just looking forward to getting started now."

Hearts launch the new season with the future of Tynecastle again dominating the headlines, just as last term finished with demonstrations against the Gorgie board.

But Maybury insists the players will continue to ignore all the off-field controversy and concentrate on what is happening on the field of play.

"The off-the-field stuff has been in the background now for a while but while we understand what’s happening, it’s not for us to get involved," he said. "We have to concentrate on the football and hopefully things won’t cross over and interfere with what we are trying to do on the pitch.

"There was an attitude among the team last season that we all had to pull together for each other. There is nothing we can do with what is going on off the park and we just have to let the people who run the club make the decisions. It’s not talked about in the dressing-room as we’re more interested in the football side of things."

Taken from the Scotsman