ALLOA SPLIT OVER BREAKING HEARTS

Alloa manager Allan Maitland admits half of his squad will be looking to dump Hearts out of the CIS Insurance Cup while the rest will be looking for autographs.

A good proportion of the Second Division part-timers' squad hail from Edinburgh - with an even split between Hearts and Hibernian supporters.

Maitland said: "We have been looking forward to the game since the draw was made.

"We have a lot of guys from Edinburgh in the Alloa team. Half of them are Hibs fans and the other half support Hearts.

"So half want to kick them and the other half want to get their shirts and autographs."

Hearts head coach Valdas Ivanauskas will rest Scotland trio Craig Gordon, Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley for the tie, which comes as no surprise to the Alloa boss.

Maitland said: "I doubt Hearts will play their strongest team.

"I would be quite happy to see Gordon, Pressley and Hartley all being rested.

"I think these guys all really need a rest as they have been carrying the team for a little while."

Meanwhile, Hearts winger Neil McCann insists his thirst for silverware remains as strong as ever.

And the 32-year-old, who re-joined Hearts from Southampton in January, is desperate to get his hands on the CIS Cup again after winning the trophy twice with Rangers.

McCann said: "It is a banana skin tonight and the only way to prevent a shock happening is to go in with the right attitude.

"If you win anything in football, it is great. There are so many players who have gone through their careers trying to win something and are so unlucky not to do it. So to belittle anything that you win is criminal.

"We won the Scottish Cup last year and want to improve and keep winning things.

"I am still so hungry to win things with Hearts. I have 10 winners' medals and hopefully I am not finished."

Ivanauskas added: "Every cup game is difficult. Maybe it is a small team and not so strong, but we know how difficult it is to play at Alloa.

"The players must be ready for a hard game. If we concentrate from the first minute, we will be okay but we will have problems if the attitude is wrong.

"Beating Motherwell on Sunday was very important for the club as a whole.

"We need victories in every game, that's good for the self-confidence and we need to keep trying to do that."

Taken from sportinglife.com