Frail looking for head start on top-six rivals

STUART BATHGATE
AFTER drawing with Falkirk a fortnight ago, Hearts' hopes of reaching the top six looked all but gone. Now, although the matter is not in their own hands, they are at least going into the last pre-split round of fixtures with a chance.
"It was a massive win (against Dundee United] last weekend," Stephen Frail, Hearts' caretaker manager, said yesterday. "And to come in and find out that Falkirk had drawn was a real bonus."

If they are to maintain their ever-present status in the top six, Hearts need to win at Kilmarnock tomorrow and must then rely on Falkirk failing to win at Aberdeen on Monday night. The late rearrangement of the Pittodrie fixture could produce a couple of anxious days for Frail and his players, but the manager insisted they had to focus on their own match.

"A win on Saturday will be enough to get us into the top six on Saturday, and then we'll have to wait and see what happens at Pittodrie on Monday," he explained. "We can't concern ourselves with that. I don't want to be sitting on Monday evening when that game goes ahead and we've not won our game. The focus and the emphasis will be on what we do on Saturday against Kilmarnock.

"We've taken as many points in this quarter as we have in the previous two put together. From that point of view I am really pleased with the players and their efforts. If we get top six then we will have earned it.

"If we finish top six then people cannot turn around and say we don't deserve it. It is about getting as many points as you can. If Falkirk do it then they deserve it, and if Aberdeen do it then they deserve it."

While the Kilmarnock manager Jim Jefferies is a former Hearts player and manager, Frail does not expect any favours tom
orrow. "Whether or not he (Jefferies] would like to see Hearts in the top six, he'll want his team to win," said Frail.

"They set their team out to win every game and I don't think if we don't make the top six that Jim or (assistant manager] Billy (Brown] will lose any sleep over it. They've got a job to do at Kilmarnock, a job they've done very well, and we know how difficult this task will be."

Centre-back Christos Karipidis and winger Andrew Driver are definitely out of the Hearts squad for the visit to Ayrshire. Another centre-back, Marius Zaliukas, is doubtful, as is the first-choice goalkeeper, Steve Banks, and more difficulties could arise in the run-up to the match. A virus at the club is currently seeing two or three players being sent home every day, although a consolation for Frail is that up to now they have mostly been youth team members rather than the first team.

Taken from the Scotsman