Levein in tribute to returning Robertson

KENNETH STEPHEN

HEARTS head coach Craig Levein hopes Tynecastle legend and good friend John Robertson receives a hero’s welcome today from the Hearts fans. But he also intends to send his former team-mate back up the A9 without plundering the points to go with the applause.

Today is the first time Robertson, seen by many as a favourite to succeed Levein in the future, will be back at Tynecastle as a manager. It is also the first time the pair will have locked horns in the opposing dug-outs.

Levein still speaks with Hearts’ record goal-scorer regularly and views his achievements in leading Inverness into the SPL as remarkable, though unsurprising. "John and I are good friends and we speak to each other fairly regularly. I am really pleased for him. To get the club into the SPL was a wonderful achievement for him and Donald Park as well," said the Hearts coach.

"John is coming back to Tynecastle as a manager and I know he will get a great welcome from the Hearts supporters. I am pretty sure he is determined to put one over us, bring his team down here and take three points. For us, we have to be wary of this idea that we are firm favourites and should win the match without too much trouble. It just does not work that way."

Levein does not have his injury problems to seek - a worry ahead of Thursday’s UEFA Cup trip to Portugal. Fortunately for him, Steven Pressley and Phil Stamp are back, but Mark De Vries, Ramon Perreira, Kevin McKenna, Graham Weir and Stephen Simmons are all out.

On De Vries’s chances of making Thursday’s crucial match with Braga, Levein said: "He came in on crutches this morning and I think it would need a Lazarus-type recovery if he was to make it."

Robertson, for his part, has urged his players to keep their heads up during a difficult spell for the club. "We have got to keep the belief," he said. "You don’t win the First Division championship and the Bell’s Cup in the same season by being a poor side."

Taken from the Scotsman