Title talk banned as Hearts aim to stretch winning run to seven

STUART BATHGATE

THE odds get shorter, the sceptics grow fewer, by the week. Six games and six wins into the season, Hearts' championship challenge is looking increasingly serious.

From the club itself, however, there is no such talk. However delighted George Burley and his players may be with their flying start, they are adhering to a party line which stresses modesty.

Finishing third, and thus getting back into Europe, was the aim before a ball was kicked, and remains so today. That will be achievement enough this time round: anything more grandiose can wait.

If they beat Inverness Caley Thistle today, and even more so if they go on to defeat Rangers next week, such an insistence could begin to look a bit on the unambitious side. Burley, however, decreed yesterday that a lot more of the season would have to go by before he would accept that his team could end up any higher at his first attempt.

"At this stage there's no thought of the championship," the Hearts coach said yesterday. "When are we going to say we're in with a shout?

"In the final quarter of the season, maybe. This stage is too early. We're not kidding ourselves - there's a long way to go and there are still areas we're a little bit lacking in."

Every manager would always like more money to buy more players, as Burley added, but unlike so many of his colleagues, he is in the happy position of knowing the cash can be released to him. What is more, he will probably get it during the next transfer window.

Hearts have sketched out a plan, agreed between the board and the principal shareholder Vladimir Romanov, for the growth of the club over the next few years. If success promises to come more quickly, though, as it seems to be doing at present, Romanov will not adhere to a lengthier timetable for the sake of it.

And clearly, if they look like exceeding their aim of finishing third, Hearts will not slacken off. "Our expectation before the season was to finish third, which will be tremendous," Burley said. "So that's not changed. But we go out to win every game, and there's a lot of honesty, desire and hunger in the squad."

Two of the most influential members of that squad, Takis Fyssas and Rudi Skacel, sat out training yesterday. The Greek right-back faces a late fitness test, but Skacel is expected to play and will thus have a chance to score in his seventh consecutive league game.

If Skacel fails to make it, Jamie McAllister, who played in right midfield in last Sunday's 4-1 win at Livingston, could revert to his preferred slot on the left. In common with his team-mates, McAllister has been made well aware of the need to remain focussed on the next match up rather than indulge in fond thoughts of bigger games to come. "As the gaffer said at the team meeting this morning, every game is only three points," McAllister said. "We want to win this game and then the Rangers game will take care of itself.

"It's by no means an easy game, so we have to go up there, keep playing the way we have been playing and hopefully get the breaks to win. We have to win the battle first, work as hard as them, then hopefully show more ability."

That Hearts have more ability on paper cannot be in doubt, but that was also true of the Rangers side which left Falkirk last week with just a point. Application and perspiration will indeed be required as much as inspiration if they are to make it seven wins out of seven games.

Taken from the Scotsman