Elvis the rock now on a roll in the Scotland defence

Michael Grant talks to the Hearts centre-half as he approaches his silver cap award for the national side and finds a patriot right at home in dark blue

WHILE Scotland considers with growing enthusiasm the issue of whether Hearts have what it takes to last the pace in the SPL, or whether George Burley should noise up the Old Firm by talking about the treble, in just four days’ time Tynecastle captain Steven Pressley will quietly secure a piece of early-season silverware.

There are bold domestic ambitions emanating from his club but with the minimum of fuss Pressley’s 25th international appearance against Norway on Wednesday – which will earn him the distinction of a silver medal from the SFA – will mark a career which has brought belated fulfilment.

Pressley will be 32 next month and has become one of those players, like Colin Hendry, Don Hutchison and Paul Dickov, who seem to be on the scene for years before emerging to the point where their country finds them indispensable. His Scotland career began in March 2000 and can be broadly divided into two periods: a first spell of two-and-a-half years in which he accumulated only three caps; and the past three years in which he has rapidly added another 21.

Had it not been for the bookings he received in Milan and Minsk earlier this year, he would have reached the milestone at Hampden yesterday. Instead, a one-match suspension reduced him to the role of spectator, one he occupies with the same expressive passion which characterised Hendry’s long career as a supporters’ talisman. Some players are lukewarm about singing “Flower of Scotland” before kick-off, and to put it bluntly others come from neighbourhoods where it wasn’t exactly a priority – isn’t that right, Nigel? – but anyone watching Pressley’s face will see a patriot heartily bellowing out his country’s anthem. The same vocal leadership will be evident on the field itself when the Norway game begins in Oslo’s Ullevaal Stadium.

Pressley made his Rangers debut as a teenager and was once regarded as Richard Gough’s potential successor. When manager Walter Smith signed Basile Boli in 1994, though, Pressley turned down a new contract and left for Coventry City in a £600,000 move. He stagnated at Highfield Road and returned to Dundee United within a year for £750,000. It was at United, and even more so at Hearts from 1998, that “Elvis” began to find his rhythm.

When he joined Coventry he was only 21 and naive enough to believe he was virtually the finished article. Now, older and wiser, he realises he was one of those footballers who would peak closer to the end of their career than the beginning. Given that he was never capped as a Rangers, Coventry City or United player, he had never envisaged one day reaching 25 Scotland appearances as a Hearts man.

“I’m especially pleased given that I didn’t come into the national team until my late 20s. I’ve benefited greatly from playing international football. It gives you a different type of environment, a different type of player to play against. I believe it has made me a better player.”

Refreshingly, he can entirely understand why international managers were able to resist any temptation to select him when he was younger. In addition to the fact that the likes of Hendry, Colin Calderwood, Matt Elliott and David Weir were obscuring his path into the Scotland side, Pressley was not regarded as being of international class until most of them had gone and his own game had benefited from several layers of experience. He has never looked back from his third cap, a sound performance in a 2-0 win in Iceland.

“I think the timing of my Scotland career has been right. When I came back to Scotland I possibly wasn’t quite ready. In hindsight I don’t think the Coventry move was the right one for me at the time. I was desperate to play first team football and thought I was a better player than I was. Going down there was a harsh learning curve. I took the move to England but it wasn’t to be, although I’ve no regrets.

“I feel I’ve been a late developer in football and I have had to learn the game. Players develop at different ages. I don’t think I was ready until recent years. I’ve worked really hard to become a better player and I was very fortunate to play with Maurice Malpas at United, who I learned a lot from.

“He is a man many would regard as not having had pace. But in terms of his reading of the game, his reading of situations, how to use his body to get between the ball and an opponent, he was one of the best I’ve ever played with. There have been others I have played with who had greater attributes than Maurice but in terms of learning the game and knowing how to use his attributes, he was the best.”

Pressley had a virus and missed Norway’s 1-0 victory at Hampden 11 months ago, a result which manager Smith – the pair of them have been reunited after a decade – attended as a spectator. “I didn’t think there was much between the teams,” said Smith, wincing at the memory of the stinging abuse directed at Vogts because Norway’s win had followed a Hampden draw with Slovenia. “The pessimism and level of criticism which surrounded Scotland at the time, I think, blew it out of proportion.”

Norway won through a Steffen Iversen penalty, after James McFadden was sent off for handling on the goalline. “When a set piece separates you at the end of 90 minutes you know there has not been much between the sides. Wednesday will be a tight game. Norway have a stability about their group of players which gives them the opportunity to qualify for tournaments. They’re quite experienced. They have a system in place that their players are comfortable with. They used to be a fairly direct back-to-front team but I think that’s changed a little bit.”

Pressley had started every one of Smith’s matches as manager before yesterday’s suspension and was also a member of the defence which kept a clean sheet against Norway in a goalless Oslo friendly two years ago. Prior experience of dealing with John Carew – the one-man wrecking ball now at Lyon – is invaluable.

So Wednesday will take Pressley officially half way towards the SFA’s Hall of Fame.

Not bad, considering how long he took to find his stride.

Taken from the Sunday Herald