HEARTS will consider drafting teenager Lee Wallace into the side which takes on Rangers in the SPL's match of the day after first choice left-back Takis Fyssas went home to Greece to be with his wife as the couple awaited the birth of a child.

Although the influence of the experienced defender will be a loss, coach Graham Rix hopes to be able to select a side which is closer to Hearts' strongest than some of their recent line-ups.

Up front, Hearts have not been able to start a match with both their first choice strikers, Edgar Jankauskas and Roman Bednar, since the last time the pair played Rangers at Tynecastle. Bednar was injured after scoring the only goal in that game while Jankauskas has also struggled for fitness.

Rix described the physically imposing strikers as players who were just as important to Hearts as Chris Sutton and John Hartson are to Celtic. "If we can get closer to fielding our strongest side, then I'm sure we'll give Rangers a good game of it," added the coach.

The return of Julien Brellier from suspension in the holding midfield position will also deliver the added bonus of freeing Paul Hartley to fill the attacking brief which best suits the Scottish internationalist after being wasted in a deep role against Inverness.

Although noncommittal on the subject of possible signing targets when the transfer window opens in January, Rix did pay David Potter, a fringe player at Liverpool, the compliment of describing the midfielder as "a very good player".

The club are thought to be weighing up a £750,000 bid for the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international, who is currently injured with a fractured vertebrae.

Taken from the Scotsman