PARK KEEPS HEARTS ON TOES

Hearts assistant coach Donald Park insists complacency will not be a danger for his team in the Tennent's Scottish Cup fourth round replay at Kilmarnock on Wednesday.

The Jambos ran out comfortable 3-0 winners over the Rugby Park side at Tynecastle on Saturday in the Bank of Scotland Premier League.

Strikes from Saulius Mikoliunas and Lee Miller sandwiched a James Fowler own goal as the Edinburgh side earned a psychological boost for the cup replay in Ayrshire this week.

But Park maintains the players will erase the memory of the win over Killie from their minds as they bid to earn a home tie against Livingston in the quarter-finals after moving to within two points of third-placed Hibernian in the SPL table.

Park said: "You can't go into a game in much better shape than having beaten the same team 3-0 a few days earlier. But there is no danger of our players being complacent.

"The boys have done great to get back into the position we are in.

"They have shown great mental strength and attitude so, hopefully, they will not think it will be too easy.

"Kilmarnock are obviously looking at it as having done half a job at Tynecastle in the first game and that they can finish it off at home so the psychological aspect is that they are going to be more positive as well."

The Scottish Cup replay will be the sixth time Hearts have played Killie this season - with a potential seventh in the pipeline after the SPL split in April.

But, while the former Inverness Caledonian Thistle number two concedes familiarity does bring preparation problems, the confident mood in the Tynecastle camp can sway the tie in Hearts' favour.

Park said: "It is very difficult to freshen things up.

"We are obviously quite buoyant after the way we played on Saturday.

"But I know it will be a totally different game and a much more difficult game than Saturday turned out to be because it is a cup-tie away from home.

"However, it is a one-off. We have got to take the positives from the previous game and just go there and try and win."

Hearts defender Jamie McAllister misses the replay through suspension.

But Scotland international Andy Webster is available despite currently serving a league ban.

Taken from sportinglife.com