No half measures for rock solid Webster

AMIDST all the hysteria which has engulfed Hearts at times this season, a certain serenity has remained. Chief executives and coaches have come and gone, and the club now boasts a bewildering array of new faces, but the core of the club is the same, and just as solid now, as we approach the business end of the season, as it was when everything kicked off at the end of July.

Which is just as well for all concerned. Vladimir Romanov's supposed revolution may hold out the promise of great things, but revolve too fast and you just get dizzy. Some stability is required, and much of it has been supplied by the triumvirate at the heart of the defence - the goalkeeper Craig Gordon, the captain Steven Pressley, and the latter's partner at centre-back, Andy Webster.

Outsiders may see the exuberant victories and demoralising defeats, and conclude in clichéd form that this has been a rollercoaster of a season at Tynecastle. Webster and his team-mates, however, appreciate the underlying trend - which is why, when asked yesterday to sum up the campaign so far in a single phrase, his response was a measured and modest one.

"It's been an improvement," Webster said after training at Riccarton. "We're lying second: last year we were fifth.

"I think the club can be optimistic. Look at the quality of the players we've got - who would have said three or four years ago that we'd have signed Champions League winners or European Championship winners? There's a desire in the team. We want to achieve."

There is a recognition in that latter phrase that, for all the evident improvement on the field, nothing tangible has been achieved yet. The championship may not have been officially conceded to Celtic yet, but in terms of recognised honours the Scottish Cup, in which they face Partick Thistle at home today, is a more probable prospect.

On the face of it, there will only be one winner. Hearts have looked vulnerable in patches in recent games, and lost to Aberdeen after a lacklustre lull lasted too long, but in general they have had too much firepower for their opponents. "We have done well in the first half in recent weeks," Webster accepted.

"We've taken the onus on ourselves to get off to a good start - 3-0 at half-time against Hibs and Aberdeen, 2-0 against Motherwell last week. When you've put so much effort into the first half, sometimes the second half is a bit ... "

He lets the sentence trail off unfinished. A fan might complete it with the word "dull" or "disappointing", but as a professional Webster would defend his team's habit of not going flat out for the full 90 minutes.

"You don't find games where it's 4-0 at half-time and you go on to win 8-0. Very, very rarely does that happen.

"Subconsciously, if you're 3-0 up at half-time you always look to defend what you've got rather than open up, be cavalier and go for five or six goals. If the goals come along all well and good, but if you're 3-0 up at the break and draw the second half 0-0, you've won the football match. You've done your job and that's important.

"Even when you're 3-0 up at half-time, you know there's a possibility that things could go wrong. The manager [Graham Rix] stresses that the next goal is always vital, and you have to get that goal.

"If at the start of the second half you're winning 2-0 or 3-0, the other team's going to be to desperate to rectify the situation. So if you can get the next goal you take the wind out of their sails, and they'll be a bit despondent after that.

"In football, who cares about the result, as long as you're winning? It would be nice for the fans to see the team win 5-0 every week, but it doesn't happen. As a footballer, it's just about winning. It doesn't matter how it comes about."

While Webster is usually happy to talk at length on footballing matters, he is less forthcoming about more personal matters. Given his position on the pitch, it is no surprise that he stonewalls some questions with uncompromising finality.

"I'm not going to speak about that," he replied when asked to look back to Hearts' pre-season visit to Ireland in which he did not take part after the club received an inquiry from Rangers. "No comment on that either," was his answer to a query about his stalled contractual negotiations.

There has apparently been no movement in those talks since the day Webster's agent, Charles Duddy, and Romanov, the Hearts owner, had a discussion which ended in acrimony - and in the player being dropped from the team for the first and so far only time this season. That was before the draw at Tannadice, the match for which Romanov was said to have over-ruled Rix and selected both team and bench himself.

That immediate crisis would appear to be over now, but there remains the chance that Duddy and Romanov will not resume their talks, and that Webster will therefore leave Hearts at the end of next season. In that case, he could effectively be working a 16-month notice period, though he insists that he will remain committed to the cause throughout that time.

"Ask anybody in the dressing-room what kind of footballer I am; ask them about my commitment to Hearts. Look back and ask when was the last time I pulled out of a tackle or didn't bother heading a ball. I'm committed to this club.

"Any time you step on the park you have a responsibility to yourself and to your team-mates to perform at the highest level. There's a stability in the team we've got here just now, and there's a commitment to each other, and there's a trust there as well.

"If I'm on the park with Steven Pressley, I know what I'm going to get. If he's on the park with me, he knows what he's going to get. Going on the park with Craig Gordon, Paul Hartley, the people that are in the team now, you know what you're going to get.

"Ask any of these players do I have a desire to win football matches, do I have that commitment to always stick my head or my foot in, they'll tell you the answer."

His closest team-mates may be Scottish, but Webster has also been impressed by those of other nationalities in the squad, particularly by the tenacious Frenchman who plays the holding midfield role.

"Julien Brellier brings hard work and a dogged determination, and I think the fans appreciate what he does - but as a defender you appreciate it even more.

"People who come to this country have to learn to adapt to the circumstances in which they find themselves. We brought in a lot of new players in the summer and they settled well. We hit the ground running and won our first eight games.

"The boys who came in, some spoke good English and some didn't speak any, but they've all made an effort. Being Scottish I can appreciate that, and when we see people making that effort, we try to make more of an effort to help them - because they're trying hard to adapt to our way of life and our way of football."

Taken from the Scotsman