BIG TEST FOR HEARTS NOW IS TO IMPROVE ON THIS CAMPAIGN

WE had our annual golf outing on Wednesday and that gave me the chance to catch up with Craig Levein who played for one of the sponsor's teams.

It gave us the chance to speak about all the changes which have taken place at Hearts in the short time he has been away from the club.

If you think about it for a moment, it's quite incredible.

And if you ask me whether I have enjoyed this season, my answer would be an unequivocal yes.

It's been a great experience for myself. Sure, I've had to deal with a number of situations which were new to me but I have really enjoyed my football.

It's been great to play in front of full houses at Tynecastle and the one thing which has really encouraged me more than anything is the potential we have at Hearts.

Now the ultimate test will be to push on. It has happened many times before that a team has one particularly good season and the next is disappointing. We don't want that to happen to us.

But this is an exciting club to be around. We need to address the issue of bringing in some stability in terms of the manager's position and there are other things within the club which need to be rectified.

However, one thing is for sure - this is a good place to be at the moment.

The fact our supporters would now see it as a disappointment if we did not finish in the Champions League places says so much about how far we have progressed.

I know how important television is to football these days but I hope we can put a spanner in the works for the executives at Setanta.

We have to play at Ibrox on the last day of the season and I'm sure a lot of people hope the Champions League spot will not have been decided by then.

I realise that would make for good telly but we would love to have that issue sewn up before we go to Glasgow.

If everything is still up for grabs by the time the last fixture comes around it's a game we would relish.

A lot of talk from now on will be about ourselves and Rangers fighting it out for second spot and, make no mistake, it would be a massive achievement for Hearts if we finished that high.

It's disappointing that our title challenge diminished over the last few months and Celtic deservedly won the title. They were more consistent than any other team and I would like to congratulate them on that.

To win a title is certainly not an easy achievement for any side. Celtic have shown great resilience and I'm sure they were happy to win the championship against ourselves at Parkhead last week. However, I have to say that while I didn't play, I thought our team did really well.

We should be encouraged because in our last three outings there we have won 2-0, drawn 1-1 in a game we should have won and lost 1-0 last Wednesday, a match I thought we dominated for long spells.

Our challenge for next season is to sustain it for longer than we did this time. We must look to improve year on year.

Mr Romanov did state he wanted Hearts to win the title within three years of him coming into the club. Many people scoffed at that suggestion but I think we have come a very long way.

And if we get Champions League football it will help attract top players and we will move forward again.

I know it's also vital for Rangers and the very fact we are challenging them for this very important second spot shows more than anything how much has changed in just 12 months.

Taken from the Daily Record