Hearts aim to put pressure on Celtic

HEARTS know a victory against Dundee United at Tannadice tonight for a team now resembling a battalion will exert pressure on leaders Celtic ahead of their own game at home to Falkirk tomorrow.

However, the Tynecastle side are just as focused on a more prosaic-sounding need to win a second league game in a row for the first time since October.

Right-back Robbie Neilson acknowledged that this somewhat meagre sounding ambition - if achieved - would also succeed in transmitting a more aggressive message in their pursuit of Gordon Strachan's team. Three points gained at Tannadice would cut Celtic's lead at the top to a less daunting five points, with the Parkhead side facing not only Falkirk tomorrow, but Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday.

"It's getting to the critical part of the season," observed Neilson. "When you pick up three points, then the first thing you do is come into the dressing-room and find out what the other scores were, and see if you have clawed back some ground." Should Hearts win tonight, the question is redundant: they will know they have.

It's a big incentive, and one which means the team are thinking only of victory. "It's totally changed from last season," admitted Neilson. "Then a draw would have been treated as a good result but now we know we have to win if we want to challenge."

When everyone is fit, head coach Graham Rix will have 35 players to choose from, and that day might not be too far away. Yesterday he revealed Neil McCann is already working with a ball after suffering ligament damage just over a fortnight ago. "He is making rapid progress," said Rix.

New signing Mirsad Beslija is already back in contention for a place tonight despite hobbling off on his debut against Aberdeen on Saturday. Though strikers Edgaras Jankauskas and Roman Bednar are still not ready for first-team action, they, too, are back training.

Scotland international Paul Hartley returns from suspension this evening, while midfielder Rudi Skacel and defender Takis Fyssas have recovered from flu. However, defender Jose Goncalves is rated doubtful with a groin injury.

Rix has alerted 23 members of his squad of the need to be ready to leave for Dundee, and will perm 18 from this number this morning. They will make up the travelling party, and Rix hopes the anxiety that will be present as he reads out his selection will be repeated before every game.

"That's the way of the world,'" he said. "It's about competition for places. Rarely are you able to play the same team week in, week out. The difference now is that we are able to field quality replacements."

Rix revealed that this competition for places will exist even in training, when the players will be split into two squads - A and B. "That will be a target for the boys - if they are not in the main group, they will have to work their way into it."

The significance of all this has not been lost on Craig Brewster, in charge of Dundee United for only the third time. He received a first-hand account of Hearts' cut-throat regime when he met Rix at a coaching seminar in Largs on Sunday.

"Matching their strength will be a priority," said Brewster. "Regardless of who is picked, they will be a formidable side."

Brewster is almost certain to be without Jim McIntyre, who has a neck injury. Charlie Mulgrew, who sat out United's last match against Celtic after the Parkhead side invoked a clause in his loan deal, returns to the squad.

Taken from the Scotsman