Kaunas clash Saint a big deal to Hearts boss Valdas

VALDAS IVANAUSKAS insists he has little interest in who triumphs when Lithuania meet Scotland in Kaunas tonight - because he will only be satisfied by victory over St Mirren on Saturday.

The Hearts head coach has opted out of travelling to his homeland to take in this evening's European Championship Group B qualifier, which could involve up to seven Hearts players after Edgaras Jankauskas was ruled out with a thigh strain.

Instead, Ivanauskas will be an intrigued armchair spectator in the hope that his players manage to complete the night unscathed.

He is already planning the weekend downfall of SPL newcomers St Mirren in the knowledge that strikers Michal Pospisil and Roman Bednar, who played for 45 minutes as Hearts' reserves slumped to a 3-0 defeat against Rangers yesterday, should be fit to return but, with the core of his squad on the pitch in Kaunas, he has been forced to improvise.

"It will be good to see a lot of players from Hearts on the pitch at the one time in an international match," said Ivanauskas. "This is great for the club. It is an interesting game and a very hard game, but for me it's about my players not incurring any injuries.

"Three days after the Lithuania-Scotland match we are at home against St Mirren so all my thoughts are trained on that. Who wins on Wednesday doesn't matter to me, it will just be a great game for Hearts. What will make me happy is if we beat St Mirren on Saturday."

Craig Gordon, Paul Hartley and Steven Pressley are certs to be named in Scotland's starting line-up. Assuming his selection, Pressley will achieve the milestone of 30 appearances for the national team to become Hearts' record international cap holder.

Robbie Neilson is also expected to be amongst the Scotland substitutes.

Saulius Mikoliunas will start the match for Lithuania although Deividas Cesnauskis remains a slight concern for head coach Algimantas Liubinskas. The Hearts winger suffered a recurrence of his recent viral infection after returning from Italy and will be given until the last minute before a decision is taken on his fitness.

Marius Zaliukas could be in line to play some part of this evening's encounter after his role as an unused substitute in Lithuania's impressive 1-1 draw with Italy in Naples at the weekend.

Ivanauskas admits the pressure on him has eased since the closure of the transfer window last month. With his squad now complete, until January at least, he has trained his thoughts solely to club business with Hearts preparing to enter the UEFA Cup next week.

"We could have brought more midfielders in, for example, but I am happy that the transfer window has closed now because it was too much stress. I am happy with my squad and I just hope all our players come back from international duty without injuries."

Meanwhile, second half goals from Nacho Novo, Charlie Adam and Rory Loy gave Rangers' second string a comfortable 3-0 triumph at Forthbank yesterday.

A major plus for Hearts, however, was the return of Roman Bednar from a foot injury and assistant coach John McGlynn is confident the Czech ace will come into contention this weekend.

"Roman picked up a knock early in the game but he was able to run it off," he said.

"The aim was to get him 45 minutes which he did and hopefully he'll now come into contention for the weekend."

Taken from the Scotsman