Fringe stars give Valdas final poser

VALDAS IVANAUSKAS has told his forgotten stars they could still win a place in the side which lines up against Gretna in the Scottish Cup final this weekend.

The Tynecastle coach fielded an almost unrecognisable side in the 2-0 defeat to Rangers on Sunday, the luxury of knowing their Champions League place was secure allowing him to make no fewer than nine changes to his side for the trip to Ibrox.

That meant a first start in a Hearts jersey for Nerijus Barasa, while Bruno Aguiar and Rudi Skacel were the only players with more than a handful of appearances under their belts.

Despite the absence of key players, Hearts created a number of chances and Rangers had to rely twice on goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus to keep out efforts from Skacel.

Ivanauskas, though, was unhappy with the first-half showing from his makeshift side.

He was more satisfied with the level of performance after the break and admitted that he now has a clearer picture as to who will make the starting line-up on Saturday.

He said: "A lot of players have a chance of being involved on Saturday.

Although I was not happy to lose to Rangers I now have more information about the team.

"A lot of players did well but I have problems with other players. I was not happy with the performance in the first half, it was not what I wanted from the players but the second half was okay and we had many chances to score a goal.

"If you lose a game it is not good. It is not good for the supporters or the players.

"They have had a big season, a fantastic season, but Sunday was not the performance I wanted. We need to analyse this game and make sure that we are ready for the cup final."

With Steven Pressley, Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon rested for the trip to Govan, Ivanauskas handed the armband to Rudi Skacel despite reports that he wants a move away from Tynecastle in the summer.

Ivanauskas added: "Rudi has had a big season for the club, I think it was good for him to be captain and I was happy with his performance."

Skacel himself was delighted to have been given the captaincy.

"I thought it was a good game for the fans because both sides had many chances," he said

"I don't think that the changes which were made had an effect on how we played because we have a big squad and the players involved deserved a game.

"We had already made second place in the league so I think it was important that we try to let everyone play some more games."

Taken from the Scotsman