Hearts manager Laszlo must do without winger against Hamilton

" "We must take Hamilton seriously, that is the message to my team" "

The injury to Mikoliunas compounds Laszlo's problems ahead of tonight's Tynecastle clash against Hamilton Accies with fellow midfielders Laryea Kingston and Deividas Cesnauskis also still injured and Michael Stewart banned for three matches following his red card at Love Street on Saturday.

Despite the absentees, Hearts will still be favourites for the Premier League fixture with Accies after that hard-fought 1-0 win at St Mirren saw them vault up to fourth in the table and left the Gorgie side just two points behind third-placed Dundee United.

And with a favourable set of fixtures to come – at least on paper – manager Laszlo senses the chance to put some daylight between his side and the congested number of teams down to last spot. But he has warned his charges not to take the visit of the league's bottom club lightly.

Laszlo said: "I think it will be a very hard game. If you look at Hamilton's statistics, they've got their most points away from home. A lot of people will think Hamilton is a small team, a new team to the SPL and we'll take it easy.

"But that is very dangerous. We have won a game away which is very precious and if we can win the game against Hamilton, it will be great. But we must take this team very seriously, that is the message to my team. We must go out and concentrate.

"The league is very close, the competition is there definitely. It's good for Scottish football."

Laszlo was impressed with the spirit his side showed to overcome Stewart's first-half red card in Paisley and emerge victorious. Now he hopes their teamwork can achieve back-to-back wins and added: "I must appreciate very well my motivated team against St Mirren and the result was not an accident.

"It was good team work and spirit – this is the way we must go in the future.

"If you like to have results, we must work hard together.

"Individuals can decide games, but I think we can beat teams if we are compact and have the will to win, that is most important.

"We have the possibility in the next few games to take points and then stabilise the team in a higher position.

"There are a lot of interesting games to come and the ten teams are very close together."

Although Hamilton head to Tynecastle rooted to the bottom of the SPL following Saturday's 1-1 draw with fellow strugglers Falkirk, their manager Billy Reid has every faith in his players' ability to drag themselves out of the danger zone before long.

"There is going to be a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and that has already been the case," said Reid.

"People think that because Hamilton Accies have lost a few games, it means we are stuck at the bottom and going to remain there. But I don't see it that way at all.

"We just have to prove that we can get ourselves off the bottom and the coming weeks will certainly prove that.

"When you lose games, you take a wee dent in confidence – that's only natural and any team will tell you that.

"We were prepared for this, we knew we weren't coming into the SPL to turn everybody over.

"We have to remember who we are and where we are at the moment.

"But we have belief in our players and we are learning all the time and, if we can add a wee bit of quality in the window, I think we will be fine."

Any activity in January will largely depend on whether Hamilton can rediscover the early-season form which saw them enjoy such an impressive start to life in the SPL.

Reid added: "It just depends on how well some of the players do between now and January.

"If the players start playing the way they did at the start of the season, we might not need to add too much. But if they continue to lose games and do silly things, we may have to add a bit. It just depends.

"Finance is always an issue, as well as who we can bring in. We would need to bring in someone who can make a difference and that's difficult to achieve."

Taken from the Scotsman