Hartley remains worry for Hearts

MARK WILSON November 04 2005

PAUL HARTLEY, Hearts' inspirational midfielder, is a doubt for tomorrow's match with Dundee United as the club seeks to end a traumatic week on a winning note.

The player has been troubled by hamstring and back problems in the past two weeks. He returned to training yesterday for the first time since Hearts' 2-0 loss against Hibernian last Saturday, their first league defeat of the season.

There will be intense scrutiny of how the team reacts to both that blow and the boardroom controversies which led to the departures of George Foulkes and Phil Anderton.

Edgaras Jankauskas is suspended for the visit of United, while Roman Bednar has not fully recovered from a cartilage operation. Hartley's attacking intent would be sorely missed by John McGlynn, the care-taker manager, whose only remaining options would be an untried partnership of Calum Elliot and Michal Pospisil.

"Paul returned to training for the first time on Thursday, but we'll just need to see if he suffers any reaction." said McGlynn. "We think he has maybe had these problems for a wee while. He needs to receive treatment on it after games for a couple of days."

Bednar, the Czech Under-21 internationalist, should return to Hearts squad after the international break. He sustained knee damage in Hearts' 1-0 win over Rangers on September 24.

"Roman went down to Leeds on Monday to see specialists," said McGlynn. "He will start training at the end of this week and we are hopeful he will play some part against Aberdeen in two weeks' time."

Vladimir Romanov, Hearts majority shareholder, yesterday continued discussion to find a replacement for George Burley. Romanov has insisted on secrecy surrounding the process but there are unlikely to be any significant developments until after tomorrow's match.

McGlynn is hopeful his players will be able to blank out the off-field strife at Tynecastle as they aim to regain SPL leadership from Celtic.

"All we can do is make sure we are ready for the game," he said. "It would be good to finish with a win ahead of the wee break."

Hibs' Tony Mowbray is the only manager to have inflicted SPL defeat on Hearts this season, but he doesn't expect his city rivals to be distracted.

"If you lose games of football, it's easy to say it affects players," said Mowbray. "But strength of character and football ability is what it's all about.

"When that whistle blows against Dundee United, you'll still have Steven Pressley and Andy Webster out there with Craig Gordon behind them, organising and determined to win the game."

Meanwhile, a prospectus outlining Romanov's 35p per share bid for outright control of Hearts is expected to drop through the letterboxes of all shareholders this morning.

Leslie Deans, in conjunction with associate Robert McGrail, owns 18% of the club, and the former Tynecastle chairman admitted they are the only shareholders left of "any real substance". Deans, though, is still awaiting confirmation of a meeting with Romanov to clarify the departures of Foulkes and Anderton.

Taken from the Herald