Burley winning battle for Hearts and minds

CELTIC fans unhappy with Gordon Strachan's performance as manager would be well advised to turn a blind eye to George Burley in the months ahead.

The new man in charge of Hearts already appears to be the sort of individual who would have excelled in the Parkhead hotseat.

It is still very early days for the former Ayr United, Ipswich and Derby County supremo in his tenure in charge of the troubled Tynecastle club.

Yet, on the early evidence - an impressive 4-2 victory over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on Saturday in his side's opening SPL fixture - the future could be extremely bright for Burley and Hearts.

He may not have been the big-name, high-profile appointment that was needed to replace Martin O'Neill and appease demanding Hoops supporters - as ex-Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Scotland star Strachan undoubtedly was.

But, having worked wonders with meagre resources at Ipswich, been named Manager of the Year in England and taken Derby to the Coca-Cola Championship play-offs last season, Burley would surely make a decent fist of managing the Glasgow giants.

Certainly, the way Hearts, backed by a travelling support of over 3200 fans, negotiated this difficult opener suggests they can seriously trouble the Old Firm under Burley.

The new strikeforce of Rudolf Skacel, Roman Bednar and Saulius Mikoliunas, in particular, was impressive against Killie. They scored their side's opening three goals before Paul Hartley added a late penalty to sew up all three points.

Worryingly for Hearts' SPL rivals, Burley maintained the best is still to come from his front men. As he looked ahead to his first Edinburgh derby this Sunday he stated: "They are only 80% fit."

He added: "They aren't really on top of their games. They haven't had too much football. But I am excited about the prospect of working with these guys. They are responding to my training and their attitude is positive. It is encouraging. I realised I needed to rebuild when I came in. We have brought in three players and will try to add another three players. But I was very impressed with the work ethic of the whole squad against Killie. We have no passengers here. It augurs well for the future.

"At Derby last season, we won a record 12 away games. We will go out of our way to win every game this season, whether it is against Hibs, Rangers, Celtic or whoever. But our aim is to finish third and get back into Europe."

Steven Naismith, the young Kilmarnock striker who put his side in front early on with an opportunist close-range goal, feels Burley's side will be a force to be reckoned with.

He agreed: "Their strikers are massive and were hard for our defence to play against. The new manager has clearly got the Hearts support and the club buzzing. They nearly sold out the whole away stand at Rugby Park on Saturday.

"In recent seasons, apart from the last one, they have been the third force in Scottish football. Their new manager has got a good reputation and I am sure they will do well."

Of his own side, Naismith commented: "We fought back well against Hearts and it would have been a different story if we had taken a couple of chances we had. We have a difficult game against Aberdeen this week and need to regroup quickly."

The return of central defender David Lilley to Jim Jefferies' team at Pittodrie should aid the Ayrshire side's cause.

Jeff agreed: "David was a key player for us last season and we missed him against Hearts.

"Our defenders made too many mistakes and paid the price."

Taken from Evening Times