IVANAUSKAS HINTS AT FRINGE BENEFITS

By Gavin McCafferty, PA Sport

Hearts head coach Valdas Ivanauskas offered some hope to his many fringe players after three of them inspired a 4-0 rout over Dundee United in the Bank of Scotland Premier League.

Andrius Velicka's shot spun off Alan Archibald to give Hearts the lead on

the half-hour mark at Tynecastle and Mirsad Beslija's stunning cross quickly set up Juho Makela for a second.

Makela was making his first start in the SPL since his £300,000 move from

HJK Helsinki in January, but that was his fifth goal for the Jambos.

The Finnish striker scored a hat-trick in his only other start - a 4-0 CIS Insurance Cup win at Alloa last month - but has otherwise been confined to a handful of substitute appearances.

The 23-year-old - a prolific goalscorer in his homeland with five international caps - warned things had to change for the good of his career after his cup exploits.

Velicka is one of a number of players who have arrived on loan from FBK Kaunas and the forward has found stiff competition in Hearts' huge first-team squad.

Roman Bednar came off the bench to engineer the fourth goal for fellow substitute and striker Jamie Mole, while the suspended Mauricio Pinilla and the injured Edgaras Jankauskas and Michal Pospisil will also be competing for a place up front.

Teenager Calum Elliot, last season's find from the youth set-up, is due to return to Tynecastle in January from a loan spell at Motherwell.

Ivanauskas was pleased Velicka and Makela had acquitted themselves well -

but warned he expected his fringe players to come in and do a job.

Ivanauskas said: "It is good for their confidence. The first 20 minutes was not so easy for them, because they're playing for the first time for a while at Tynecastle.

"I was not happy with the first 20 minutes, but it's very important for

the strikers to wait for a chance and keep working hard for a chance.

"And you saw with Andrius, the first chance is a goal and similarly also for Juho."

Ivanauskas' preference for rotating his squad suggests his awareness of

the need to keep so many players happy - the team that beat United showed six changes from the side which drew at Sparta Prague on Thursday.

One of those recalled after the UEFA Cup exit was Bosnian winger Beslija,

who last month warned he would seek to engineer a move if he did not get more chances to play after his £850,000 switch from Belgian side Genk in January.

Ivanauskas said: "I can understand, because he hasn't played regularly

and he played regularly for his last club. But we know how important every player is."

Others waiting in the wings who the Tynecastle faithful have not seen much of - such as Christos Karipidis and Kestutis Ivaskevicius - were given encouragement that their chance can come.

"Every player has a future if he is working hard and is ready for the fight," Ivanauskas said.

Taken from sportinglife.com