Webster a defender of faith

DAN BRENNAN

ANDY Webster may not be the most feted of Hearts' Scottish internationalist quartet, but he is arguably the most improved. His confirmation as September's SPL Player of the Month is just reward for recent performances at the heart of the Tynecastle defence that have George Burley talking of a "player who can go on to be one of the best centre-halves in the country".

"Winning awards isn't something you give too much thought to," shrugs Webster. "It's a nice achievement, but when the team does well it makes your job easier."

A collectivist work ethic, like a stubborn refusal to look beyond the next game, are both mantras regularly invoked by Burley these days, as he seeks to retain focus and manage expectation amid the hype. They are ones to which Webster is happy to subscribe.

"For us, it's just about concentrating on doing well, and making sure every week we're right for the game and focused.

"Anyone looking at the start of the season would have thought winning eight games on the trot would have been very difficult," he concedes. "I think the way the players and manager have gone about it means we're capable of winning football matches."

Says Burley: "Andy has all the attributes of a top-class defender. He is quick, strong, aggressive, good in the air and composed on the ball. He and Steven Pressley have formed a great centre-half partnership for Scotland, and especially for Hearts."

Webster's qualities reportedly attracted interest from Rangers in the summer.

Old Firm advances, rumoured or real, have knocked many a player off his stride, but Burley says Webster's response was exemplary.

"There is no doubt that his head was turned when I came in," says the Hearts manager. "But we had a good chat, we both stated our views, and there was a mutual respect. Since that day we've never looked back and he has been absolutely outstanding. It's to his credit that it didn't effect him one iota."

Burley is happy to praise the intelligence and diligence of the 23-year-old history buff, who was set to go university before Hearts paid Arbroath £70,000 for his signature in 2001.

"He has worked hard on the training pitch and has absorbed all the work I've done with the back four."

Underplayed amidst all the talk of winning streaks fuelled by Rudi Skacel's goal burst is the fact that Hearts have conceded a miserly four goals in their first eight games. It is a statistic of which the legendary Arsenal back four of Tony Adams et al would have been proud; and there are similarities. When Arsene Wenger embarked upon his French revolution at Highbury in 1996, he was quick to appreciate the inheritance of a British-built defence. And while the Romanov Revolution has maxed out on more exotic components elsewhere on the pitch, Burley places great value on the local foundations at the back.

"I said from day one that I wanted to keep my four Scottish internationalists. That was key and has helped enormously. All four of them are playing better than they ever have in their careers. To have four Scottish internationalists in the team is tremendous. But they are [in the national team] because they are doing so well for Hearts. If they weren't doing it for us, or weren't getting the right training, they wouldn't be getting picked for their country. Scotland is benefiting from Hearts not the other way round."

Walter Smith has certainly benefited from the consistency being shown by Webster, Pressley and Gordon this term.

"Once you get off to a good start, winning is a habit and it's a nice habit to have," says Webster. "We want it to continue."

The defender learned the winning habit early, as a teenager with Arbroath.

"I made my debut when I was 16. I was playing in a team which won about 12 games in a row at the start of the season."

That unbeaten start, back in 2000, ended in Arbroath's promotion to the first division, though Webster had already moved on to Tynecastle by then. While the defender refuses to speculate as to whether Hearts' opening sequence this season can have a similarly happy denouement, he acknowledges that the benefits in terms of confidence are the same.

"Although it's a different level, a winning streak had the same effect at Arbroath as it does now at Hearts. If you're confident going on to a pitch on a Saturday then things will come off, whereas if you're a little apprehensive then it creeps into your game and you don't do the things which normally come naturally."

Webster's decision to plump for Tynecastle came down, he says, to Craig Levein's belief in an old Shankly adage. Levein it was who, in 2001, convinced the teenager to shun a return to academic pursuits or a move to Tayside, where Dundee United manager Alex Smith had also spotted his potential. "I'd been on trial at Hearts so I knew the set up and a few of the players," recalls Webster. "The manager said if I was good enough I was old enough and that's what I wanted to hear.

"I didn't want to sit about in the reserves, I wanted to know that if I was doing well, first team opportunities would come, and Hearts gave me that best chance. Working with Craig Levein was a big influence."

Now, Burley's influence is clearly to the fore. Looking ahead to today's visit to Falkirk, Webster echoes his manager's adherence to short-term focus.

"This game is just as big as the Rangers one," he insists. "Rangers meant a full house, a game on television against the champions. But it's still just three points. That makes this game massive, too, because it's another three points. Let's not underestimate this; we need to go there and perform well. They're a good side."

His caution may be fuelled by memories of a 4-0 Scottish Cup defeat to the Bairns in January 2003 and though he admits "times have changed" for Hearts since then, he is also aware that the true test of the current team's limits in the league will come after their first real setback. "Once we draw or lose a game - and there's every chance that will happen - it's how people react to that and how strong you are mentally to recover and get over it."

He is also aware that the current eulogising of Hearts has an in-built flipside. "In any walk of life, people put you up there and want to shoot you down. That's part of life. The Old Firm have been dominating and people put them up to shoot them down. As long as we're focused, on our day we can compete with anyone. How far that can take us, I don't know yet."

Like his manager, Webster chooses to emphasise the strong esprit de corps being forged at Tynecastle. It is one being reinforced by extra curricular pursuits.

"The manager organised a trip to Musselburgh races the other week and we went for a meal afterwards. It's good to socialise with your team-mates outwith football. Everyone turned up which is good for team bonding. Even the new guys who speak little or no English are going to these things, and that's appreciated. You can see they're making an effort and trying to adapt."

He also pinpoints the drawn pre-season friendly against Middlesbrough as a watershed moment. "A packed Tynecastle, playing against boys who've played at the top all over the world - I think that night was the start of it all.

"The mentality we showed that night has continued. Players coming have probably raised the bar a bit but you need to remember the boys who have been the mainstay of this club for the last two or three years."

Webster no longer needs to remind anyone that he is one of them.

Taken from the Scotsman