Ivanauskas combines coaching roles with club and country

Colin Stewart
FORMER Hearts head coach Valdas Ivanauskas has been appointed the new Lithuanian Under-21 manager.
Ivanauskas led the Tynecastle side to their Scottish Cup triumph three years ago when Hearts beat Gretna on penalties and took the Edinburgh men to a second-placed Premier League finish.

He was eventually axed the following year and also had an unsuccessful spell in charge of Germans Carl Zeiss Jena before being sacked last year.

Ivanauskas is the current manager of Lithuanian Second Division side FK Banga and will combine the role with the under-21s job.

It is a return of sorts for the 42-year-old as he took the first steps on the coaching ladder six years ago as part of the Lithuanian full national team set-up.

As well helping feed the senior national side with emerging talents, Ivanauskas will be charged with securing qualification for the 2011 Uefa European Under-21 Championship to be held in Denmark – no easy task given the strength of the opposition Ivanauskas's young side will come up against. England, Portugal and Greece all line up in Group 9 alongside Macedonia and Lithuania.

Ivanauskas may well be journeying back to his old Edinburgh stamping ground in order to check on the progress of Hearts teenager striker Arvydas Novikovas, who joined the Gorgie club at the start of the season but is yet to make the leap into the first-team picture at Tynecastle.

Meanwhile, Hearts midfielder Laryea Kingston has been ruled out of Saturday's crucial Clydesdale Bank Premier League clash at Dundee United. But Christos Karipidis is winning his battle to make the Tannadice contest, according to the club's official website.

Kingston was carried off with a hamstring injury shortly after coming on as a substitute during Saturday's 1-1 draw with St Mirren.

The Ghana international will have a scan to determine the full extent of the injury, but the club say he will not face the top-four encounter.

Karipidis missed the Saints game with a virus, but he is expected to return to training well ahead of the United game.

Taken from the Scotsman