Ivaskevicius to make his Hearts debut against Alloa

KESTUTIS IVASKEVICIUS will be handed his Hearts debut by head coach Valdas Ivanauskas tonight in the relatively low-key surroundings of Recreation Park.

The 21-year-old midfielder is expected to start in the third round of the CIS Cup at Alloa, his first appearance since joining the club on loan from Lithuanians FBK Kaunas three weeks ago.

Ivanauskas will utilise the match to grant some rarely-used members of his squad first-team action, including Christos Karipidis, Mirsad Beslija and goalkeeper Steve Banks. Ivaskevicius merits his inclusion after the recommendations of Eduard Malofeev, the former head coach of Kaunas who now works in a consultant's role for Hearts.

Ivanauskas said today: "Eduard told me that Ivaskevicius performed well for Kaunas in pre-season and was a leader on the pitch for them. He was an important player in the Kaunas team, and also for the Lithuanian under-21 team. He has a big chance of playing.

"I have known him for five years. I coached him in Kaunas when he was a very young player and he impressed me. Like a lot of young players after one good year in the first team, his performance fell down a level.

"He knows he is a good player but he must work every day for his future. He has had a few small injuries since coming here but now he is fit. For him it is also a new country and new style of football and he must adapt here. I hope tonight he will go out and prove himself."

The versatile Ivaskevicius is likely to start on the right for Hearts, but is equally comfortable on the opposite flank or in a floating role through the middle.

"For two years I played him as an offensive central midfielder," continued Ivanauskas, "but Eduard played him on the right. He can give us options in midfield."

Another Lithuanian, Andrius Velicka, can expect to drop to the bench against Allan Maitland's Alloa, who are bottom of the Second Division. Roman Bednar, Neil McCann and Bruno Aguiar are all in line to start.

Meanwhile, the Belgian club Racing Genk say they expect news from FIFA within the next seven to ten days regarding Hearts' non-payment of the Mirsad Beslija transfer money.

The Edinburgh club are still due Genk 80 per cent of Beslija's £800,000 fee and FIFA are presently looking into the case. Willy Reynders, sporting director at Genk, told the Evening News: "We have heard that, at Hearts, there is an investigation into this case but we don't know much more.

"From our contact with FIFA, we expect some news in the next week or ten days."

Taken from the Scotsman