DONS KEEPER ESSON WARMS TO HEARTS

19 November 2005
Ryan Esson admits the progress of his Scotland team-mates at Hearts will act as inspiration to Aberdeen tomorrow when they face the Jambos at Pittodrie.

While Esson was one of three Dons players on the bench when Walter Smith's side played the United States last week, four Tynecastle representatives started the game.

Paul Hartley has been one of the Edinburgh club's star performers as they have moved to the top of the league this term, scoring five goals.

The defensive trio of Craig Gordon, Steven Pressley and Andy Webster have caught Esson's eye and he knows how difficult they will be to overcome at Pittodrie this weekend.

He said: "It is well known that Hearts can win games 1-0 because they are very good defensively, especially with Craig, Steven and Andy at the back.

"The three of them are solid and this year they have managed to become a bit more consistent as well.

"They are hard to break down and it shows how good they have become that they are all playing at international level together too.

"It is not frustrating to see them ahead of us in the Scotland team as such, because their positions in the side are justified.

"They have been doing the business since the start of the season and we need to get to that standard.

"It is a case of us asking ourselves what we can do to get to their level as when you train with those guys, you pick up things from them and notice what they do a bit differently.

"It inspires us to do better things and seeing them achieve gives us an extra incentive to beat them."

Jimmy Calderwood's men will tomorrow play for the first time since their dismal 1-0 CIS League Cup defeat at Motherwell.

Having fallen out of that competition and failed to repeat their SPL form of last term, this campaign seems to be slowly ebbing away from the Reds players.

Esson admits he and his team-mates have underachieved, but remains confident they can turn their ailing fortunes around against the Gorgie outfit.

He said: "We did not play as well as we possibly could have at Motherwell and it is always so hard when you get beaten.

"Little things that went for us last year just have not happened this season yet, but sometimes you go through spells like that.

"You just need to ride them out and hope they pass, as we are hoping at the moment. It will be difficult on Sunday but we are up for the game.

"Sometimes having such a long break between games is bad but I think some of the boys needed this one.

"They needed time to get rid of injuries and it has probably been good for us to get freshened up again and ready for Sunday.

"The aim for us now is to reach the top six, because we know how hard it is going to be to get up among the best teams now.

"We are still confident we can get back up the table but I think it is fair to say we perhaps overachieved last season.

"With the new manager coming in then, we had such a good run early on and picked up a lot of points then and at the end of the campaign.

"We were looking to improve on that this year and I still feel as though we can do that. There are still a lot of games to go and we can only take each one as it comes at the moment."

Taken from the Press and Journal