Pressley refusing to hit panic button

STEVEN Pressley has urged Hearts not to panic despite the worst possible preparation for an uphill Champions League struggle against AEK Athens this midweek.

The Tynecastle captain expressed his disappointment after a timid defeat to Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday, a result compounded by an injury to the club's most imposing striker, Roman Bednar.

The Czech is now almost certainly out of the second leg of their qualifier in Athens, while Paul Hartley looked evidently short of sharpness during a subdued second-half cameo appearance.

None the less, Pressley was still maintaining that the club have made a positive start to their championship challenge and require only a back-to-basics approach to rediscover last season's swashbuckling form.

"I believe we're a far better side than we showed today. Sometimes you have to go back to the basics, and that means being a difficult side to beat and an ugly side to play against," he said, Hearts having been neither on Saturday.

"I thought we were too easy to play against. I don't think there's anything to panic about, we made a good start to the game.

"The next two [league] games are home games, and very important for our progress this season."

Hearts started brightly against Rangers but their progress was ruined by a personal nightmare endured by Robbie Neilson.

The full-back conceded a penalty within a minute of the restart, fouled Lee Martin in the build-up to the second and was sent off near the end for a second bookable offence to round of a forgettable afternoon chasing the Manchester United loan signing.

It validated Pressley's perception that defeat was largely self-inflicted.

"We spoke about the first goal after the game; it was a lack of concentration. That's part of football, when you lose goals it's all about the reaction and we have to react better to losing goals than we did today," he said.

"We shouldn't look too much into it, we came here top of the league with seven points from a possible nine. We had made a good start to the campaign, and didn't play as well as I know we are capable of.

"I didn't think we showed the composure and belief that we should do when coming here; there are a helluva lot of good players in that team.

"I thought we started the game extremely well, and played the way we can in the first 15-20 minutes.

"We played with belief,

purpose and tempo and I thought we would go on to win the game. We have to give Rangers credit, they played extremely well."

While insisting that the Champions League qualifier with AEK is far from over, Pressley admits the side will need the return of Hartley, despite his evident lack of sharpness, to counterbalance the absence of Bednar.

"Roman has made a fantastic start to the season, and will be a big loss," he said.

Edgar [Jankauskas] has just come back into the side, and needs games. It was very pleasing to see Paul back in action today - I know it was only 20 minutes, but it was a big plus for us. Hopefully over the coming weeks he'll prove his worth."

Taken from the Herald