Wallace continues long line of strong defence as newest kid on block

ALMOST nine years ago, a raw teenager by the name of Gary Naysmith was plunged into the heat of battle as Hearts took on Celtic in the quarter-final of the Coca-Cola Cup at Tynecastle.

The 17-year-old emerged from his baptism of fire at left-back with flying colours as an extra-time winner from John Robertson gave the hosts a famous triumph.

The window of opportunity had swung open for Naysmith with Hearts hit by suspension to Paul Ritchie, Pasquale Bruno, David Weir and Neil Pointon following their sendings off against Rangers at Ibrox just days earlier.

The cauldron of a packed Tynecastle represented a seismic shift in circumstances for the kid who had been battling to keep his place in the Jambos reserve side. But he belied his tender years to produce an outstanding performance and on that epic evening in Gorgie a star was born.

The rest, of course, is history, with international honours quickly following and a £1.75million move to Everton in 2000 seeing him perform in the English Premiership at the age of 22.

Now, all these years later, the Tynecastle club could well have unearthed another defensive jewel.

Hardly anyone outwith the Gorgie outfit had heard of Lee Wallace when he was thrown into the Tennent's Scottish Cup clash with Kilmarnock in the Capital on February 5.

Former boss John Robertson knew what he was doing, however, and the 17-year-old has since gone from strength to strength in establishing himself as the club's first-choice left-back - he has missed just one game, when he was forced to sit out last month's defeat to Dundee United at Tannadice.

The striking similarity to Naysmith's jet-propelled emergence into the limelight has not been lost on caretaker boss John McGlynn, who has nurtured some of the club's top young talents since joining the Jambos in 1996.

"We are developing some really good defenders at Hearts with the likes of Jason Thomson, Lee Wallace, Craig Sives, Gary Tierney and Christophe Berra all progressing well," he said.

"I am not saying we will throw them all in but we know the future's looking good as regards defenders here.

"They just need experience of first-team football and young Lee has shown what can be done. He has come in at left-back and made the position his own. He is very composed on the ball, uses it well, is aggressive in the air and tenacious in the tackle. He also has pace and a good temperament and has already shown this season he can handle the big occasions."

With the club hoping to have Robertson's successor installed for the start of the new season, the onus will be on the teenager to impress again.

"We have high hopes that Lee can continue what he has been doing," said McGlynn.

"We appreciate, though, that like any young lad, he will have dips in form.

"Whether he can start off next season as he finished this one remains to be seen." Nonetheless, in the fullness of time, Wallace appears destined to become one of the club's major assets, McGlynn acknowledging he has the football world at his feet.

"There has been a lot of pressure on him at his age to tie down the left-back position for so long," he added.

"Having said that, Gary Naysmith did exactly the same here. Jim Jefferies brought in Neil Pointon to challenge him and he went on to take up that challenge and progress even further.

"The rest is history with his move to Everton and hopefully Lee can go on to do something similar."

The level-headed Wallace has heard all the talk but is quick to play down such comparisons.

"Gary Naysmith is brilliant and I would not say I'm at that standard," he said.

"Hopefully I could get to that. I have heard the comparisons but that happens a lot with players and I have a wee bit to go."

The eye-catching form of the former Forrester High School pupil has been one of the real bonuses of a tumultuous season at Tynecastle, which saw McGlynn handed temporary control by new owner Vladimir Romanov in the wake of Robertson's exit just seven months after replacing Leicester City-bound Craig Levein.

Had such a scenario been suggested to the youth coach 12 months ago, there's no doubt he'd have been calling for the men in white coats.

He did a valiant job in rallying his troops for the final two games of the season against Celtic and Aberdeen but gives the impression he'll be more than happy to remain in the background - if his services are required - on the appointment of a new manager.

"It's been a hectic last few weeks and I'd like to thank the players, the entire coaching staff and the backroom team for helping me cope with what has been a difficult job," he said. "It has been a learning experience for myself and a bit frantic to be honest as I have not been used to dealing with the media as much as I have done over the past fortnight.

"I've also found it a bit more difficult to make myself heard shouting above 18,000 fans compared to the 20 who may turn up at the reserve or youth matches! I have never been involved in a season like that ever before and I am sure the rest of the staff and the supporters would say the same.

"It was such a roller-coaster ride with the big pluses obviously the UEFA Cup campaign, albeit we didn't qualify from the group stages.

"The trips to Braga, when we made it into the group phase and the victory in Basel were magnificent occasions, which will be remembered by everybody who was there.

"We made it into two cup semi-finals and while expectancy levels were high, particularly against Motherwell in the CIS Cup, we couldn't make it to a final.

"But we bounced back from that and for having a supposedly bad season, we weren't out of contention for third place until towards the latter stages of the season." McGlynn added: "Losing Craig Levein as manager was obviously significant.

"A new boss came in and had to change players around during the transfer window in January and bring people in he thought could take the club forward.

"We won at Celtic Park for the first time in a number of years but didn't win another game after that. It is hard to put a finger on what went wrong but there was certainly no lack of effort or commitment from the players.

"It was disappointing to finish the campaign the way we did with defeat at Pittodrie but the circumstances made it easier for Aberdeen as they had something to play for and had more energy.

"There has been a lot of turmoil over the past few months including when Craig went and then all the speculation prior to John Robertson leaving didn't help anybody.

"What we need is someone to come in and give us some stability. It's been a really up-and-down season and in some respects I'm glad it's over."

It's debatable if young Mr Wallace would agree.

Taken from the Scotsman