Pressley confident Hearts will get to third place

ANGUS WRIGHT AND DARREN JOHNSTONE

STEVEN Pressley, the Hearts captain, believes the Tynecastle side can overtake city rivals Hibernian to claim third place in the Bank of Scotland Premierleague this season.

Hearts are just two points behind Hibs, who play their game in hand at Motherwell tonight. But Pressley maintains confidence will prove to be the decisive factor as the Edinburgh rivals chase third spot in the SPL. The sides face each other at Tynecastle on 9 April.

Pressley told the Hearts website: "I have said that for some time the gap between ourselves and Hibs is achievable. I believe that between now and the end of the season we can close the gap and overtake them.

"The important thing for ourselves is that we continue to win our league games, and if we do that then we certainly put the pressure on Hibs.

"It is well documented that they have had a very good season thus far, but there are still 12 league games to go, and we are coming on strongly at this time, and so we are certainly putting pressure on them.

"Only two weeks ago they led us by 11 points, but now it is down to two. That shows you the form that we are in."

Hearts are unbeaten in the league this year and turned in their best performance of 2005 on Saturday against Kilmarnock when they won 3-0 with a youthful line-up. Defenders Lee Wallace, 17, and Christophe Berra, 20. both put in admirable displays.

Donald Park, Hearts’ assistant coach, acknowledges he and head coach John Robertson have unwittingly reduced the average age of the Tynecastle side since taking over at the helm at the tail end of last year.

Hibs are already reaping the dividends of Park’s legacy as Easter Road youth coach with the rise to prominence of players such as Derek Riordan, Garry O’Connor and Steven Whittaker. And Park insists putting faith in the next generation of players is the only way the flagging national team can dig itself out of it’s current predicament.

He said: "We have now become quite a young team, Elvis [Pressley] was like a grandad in the back four on Saturday.

"The real positive side of things for the club is that we had two young guys playing left-centre back and left back, both played really well. It’s possibly the way it’s just worked out that we have many young guys playing. And speaking personally for the benefit of the game in Scotland there must be a pathway for our kids to come through, if there is no pathway then we are never going to become better and we will continue to be in the mess that we are in.

"That’s only my opinion. Lets be honest and selfish, it should be about us getting our own players first and foremost. All the borders have come down in Europe, we need to use that but we should never forget the good quality of Scottish kids we have."

Park was quick to stress these views were merely his own and not those of the club, and they come at a time when Lithuanian banker Vladimir Romanov is beginning to stamp his authority in Gorgie in the wake of his successful takeover.

Robertson now has three of Lithuania’s most exciting prospects at his disposal with Saulius Mikoliunas and Marius Kizys having been joined in Edinburgh by compatriot Deividas Cesnaukis, who trained with his team-mates for the first time yesterday and is available for tomorrow’s Scottish Cup fourth-round replay against Kilmarnock.

The televised clash will be the third time the clubs have played each other in 11 days, and although Hearts easily came out on top in the league meeting on Saturday, Park expects to come up against a different Killie side tomorrow.

He said: "It will definitely be a more difficult game than Saturday turned out to be because of it being a cup tie and with it being down there. There is no danger of the guys becoming complacency, they have great mental strength and they have great attitude."

Taken from the Scotsman