ROBERTSON WON'T GO EASY ON LIVI

Hearts head coach John Robertson has every sympathy for the plight of former club Livingston - but insists there will be no room for sentiment in Sunday's Tennent's Scottish Cup clash between the sides.

Robertson spent four years at Almondvale as a player and coach before departing to begin his managerial career with Inverness Caledonian Thistle in December 2002.

He is saddened by the demise of his old colleagues in West Lothian, who are bottom of the Bank of Scotland Premier League.

However, with the prize of a Scottish Cup semi-final up for grabs at Tynecastle, the Gorgie boss will put all past associations with the visitors to one side in pursuit of a victory for his current club.

He said: "I know a lot of people at Livingston, I have great memories of the club and there are a lot of fantastic people working for them.

"I hope everything gets sorted out because it's a great club to be involved with and it has great community involvement. They have a very loyal band of people that work for them and hopefully that will all get sorted out.

"But I have to do what is best for Hearts and the best for us would be to win this Sunday. It's a great chance to move forward in the cup competition."

Hearts will go into the match as firm favourites, with Richard Gough's team without a win against SPL opposition since the end of November.

However, after losing 2-0 to Motherwell last weekend, Robertson insists his side will be taking nothing for granted.

He added: "Livingston will see this as a great opportunity to get to the semi-final - their league form means nothing.

"They have got here on merit and they will be a tough nut to crack. We have played them twice this season and we are not taking anything for granted.

"This will be a really hard game and we will have to be a lot better than we were last week.

"The players are itching to show that was a one-off performance. I have seen a reaction from the players, they are disappointed, they have set high standards for the last two years and last week we dipped below them."


Taken from sportinglife.com