Hearts coach ready to keep faith with Berra

HEARTS boss Valdas Ivanauskas today revealed he would have no fears about throwing Christophe Berra into the white-hot atmosphere of Easter Road this weekend.

With Steven Pressley and Jose Goncalves both struggling to shake off injuries, Ivanauskas could again turn to the 21-year-old defender to step in if either of those players is ruled out.

Berra has already had a taste of derby action this season having played the full 90 minutes of the 4-1 win over Hibs at Tynecastle in January and, in the absence of Pressley with a head knock earlier this month, also started against Celtic at Parkhead.

The youngster scored his first goal for the club in the 2-0 win over Kilmarnock at the weekend and his assured display did enough to impress the interim boss, who said: "I thought Christophe played a good game against Kilmarnock. We had one or two injuries and he did a good job

"He is just a young boy but we do rate him and we are looking at him every day in training so there is a possibility that he will be involved against Hibs this weekend.

"Steven did not train yesterday but I hope that he will be ready for the weekend but if not then we have a big, quality squad.

"Christophe and Ibrahim Tall both did very well and it is good for Hearts, a big plus, that we can call on these types of players and are able to rotate our squad when we need to."

Meanwhile, Ivanauskas has hailed the winning mentality which has developed this season and helped put Hearts in the driving seat for a place in the Champions League qualifiers.

The Hearts coach has been delighted by the way in which the players at Tynecastle have gelled this season, despite the number of foreign players who have been drafted in.

He admitted that bringing so many different nationalities together could have posed problems but he believes they have overcome the language and lifestyle barriers and now genuinely approach matches, no matter who they are up against, convinced they are going to win.

He added: "We play until we win every game and that is good because we need to have the winning mentality if we are to have success.

"We have so many foreign players that it could have been difficult mentally, but everyone is working hard and coming together as a team.

"They understand what we are trying to do.

"It was very important for us to get three points against Kilmarnock and also it was very important after the Dunfermline game to put in another good performance.

"The players are working very hard for one another and I am very happy with that."

Ivanauskas will be hoping his players display that same attitude when they make the short trip across the city to face Hibs this Saturday.

The Lithuanian, however, will be forced to sit in the stand at Easter Road as he has been handed a two-match touchline ban after being sent to the stand at Parkhead a fortnight ago for protesting a decision not to award Hearts a penalty.

Taken from the Scotsman