Frail will urge Hearts strikers to fill void left by Velicka exit

By STUART BATHGATE chief sports writer
HEARTS begin life without Andrius Velicka today after the club's leading goalscorer for the past two seasons completed his transfer to Norwegian side Viking Stavanger.
The Lithuanian signed a three-and-half-year deal with Viking following a medical. As the 28-year-old is on loan to Tynecastle from Kaunas, Hearts will officially receive nothing from the six-figure transfer, in which Viking are believed to be paying £600,000 up front with the balance to be paid when Velicka has made 50 appearances.

Given the Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov also has a major interest in Kaunas, however, the deal arguably makes good sense for UBIG, the Baltic businessman's banking group.

The striker joined Kaunas, his first senior club, in 1996, and has only ever been on loan to other sides. The payment from Viking therefore represents pure profit for the Romanov group.

Whether it is so beneficial for Hearts, however, is another question. Velicka has maintained his form throughout some lean times for the team as a whole, and none of his fellow-forwards has shown anything like his instinct for consistent goal-getting. Without Velicka's goals, the club would have suffered an even poorer season than has been experienced so far.

Stephen Frail, Hearts' caretaker manager, was at least putting a brave face on the imminent loss of a key player yesterday, and insisted he had others on the books who could fill the void left by Velicka – starting tonight, when Rangers visit Tynecastle on SPL duty.

"He is our top goalscorer, and so that alone is a loss," said Frail. "He showed a real hunger and work rate, and as I said a couple of weeks back he summed up what I was looking for when he was playing with a dislocated toe. It will be a loss, but it is an opportunity for strikers coming in to try and stake a claim and get in the team.

"He was just one of a number of players in our squad, and I've said this season that we've got a good squad. It is up to the other strikers to say 'I need to go out and play', because at times, in terms of goal-scoring, he's carried us. Now there are opportunities for other players."

Opportunities, above all, for Calum Elliot and Christian Nade. Mauricio Pinilla, the Chilean, is more gifted than any other striker at the club, but is injury-prone. Juho Makela of Finland has done well when given the chance, but that chance has only come rarely. Others such as Ricardas Beniusis are some way down the pecking order.

So Nade, the former Sheffield United player, and Elliot, who is still only 20, seem sure to be given the chance to forge a useful partnership. They played together in Hearts' 1-0 win at Motherwell last week, and will do so again this evening.

Strength rather than speed is the forte of both, and it is possible they will prove too similar to thrive together in the longer term. At present, though, they are the best option Hearts have, and Elliot is determined to seize his chance.

"With Andrius leaving there will be even more pressure on Christian and me," Elliot accepted. "Obviously he'll be a loss, but we've got good enough players who can come in."

That assertion would not be readily accepted by the section of the Hearts support who have booed Elliot in recent matches, but the young Scot said that such criticism only increased his determination to s
ucceed. "It's not great when you're coming on as a substitute and you get a lot of boos when your name is announced, but it just makes you stronger.

"I've just got to prove them wrong. I've not done as well as I know I can do, and that's frustrating. The players have always been 100 per cent behind me, and I can't thank Shaggy (Frail] enough for his support."

The fact that they won at Fir Park without Velicka and several other senior players is enough for the Hearts squad not to feel dispirited as they look ahead to the visit of Rangers, according to Frail. "Motherwell are third in the league and they've had a fantastic season," he said.

"We went there and won without (Velicka], and Laryea Kingston, without Neil McCann and without Marius Zaliukas, without Andy Driver and Michael Stewart."

Frail expects to have at best one of his injured players back for tonight's game.

Taken from the Scotsman