Thursday aside, striker has sights set on being second best

JOHN Sutton has had his fill of excuses and hard-luck stories.

Few members of the Hearts contingent were more hurt by their Europa League embarrassment against Tottenham Hotspur this time last year than the Englishman, who spent a couple of years in the White Hart Lane club's youth system.

Things went from bad to worse for Sutton as he was shipped out on loan for a short-lived Antipodean adventure at Central Coast Mariners, missing the Scottish Cup win against their city rivals.

After some soothing words from manager John McGlynn, however, the striker is the centre of attention – the only fit senior centre-forward at the club – and Liverpool were almost on the wrong end of it on Thursday night, despite the 1-0 scoreline. To travel to Anfield with a glimmer of hope seems like legitimate cause for celebration.

"There is that enjoyment but I'm also happy with the way we are going about our business," Sutton said. "We went into the Tottenham game last year and basically sat back. It felt like we were expecting to lose. But on Thursday night we pressed high and, although we respected them for the players they are, we had a right good go at beating them.

"They are still human beings, they are not another species. A lot are internationals and most of us watch them on Match of the Day every week, but there is no reason we can't set our standards as high or aspire to be like them. I'm getting a little bit older, but it is great for the young boys.

"You've got to be ambitious.Everyone keeps going on about the TV revenues, which distorts everything, but Hearts get a lot of support and we just have to go about things a bit differently. There's no reason why we can't take it that little bit further and start beating these teams."

If Sutton was the workhorse, the headline acts were David Templeton, continuing his early-season form in a role just off the front, and Ryan McGowan, back in his favoured right-back role. Templeton's performance in particular may have got scouts talking, comparing favourably with the efforts on the night of Fabio Borini, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing – signed for a total of around £50m – and Anfield's young winger Raheem Sterling, who had a £1m price tag when he arrived from Queens Park Rangers as a 15-year-old.

"It's an interesting comparison," Sutton said. "I was speaking to Ryan McGowan after the game and Sterling was very impressive, but he said it was just like playing Temps in training at times."

Hearts today travel to Aberdeen to face Sutton's former manager Craig Brown and his former team-mate Mark Reynolds in the kind of fixture which once held sway in Scottish football. Maybe those days are on the way back.

"Everyone is talking about finishing second and Champions League football next year," Sutton said. "Having played away for a bit you realise that Scottish football isn't so bad."

One Liverpool player who went some way to living up to his price tag on Thursday was midfielder Joe Allen. The Wales cap, who cost £15m from Swansea, hardly wasted a pass after coming on for the last 20 minutes.

Liverpool today take on champions Manchester City before turning their attentions to Thursday's second leg with Hearts.

"The away fixture was the toughest one maybe," said Allen. "But at this level, home or away it is quite simple really: you have got to be playing to 100%. In terms of next week, we will approach it probably the same way."

Allen and club-mate Charlie Adam are likely to face each other when Wales take on Scotland in October, but first the Welsh kick off their campaign with a daunting tie against Belgium.

"Myself and Charlie haven't discussed Wales-Scotland, we have got our first qualifiers to look forward to," said Allen, who felt he benefited from his involvement with Team GB at the London Olympics. "Ours is a really tough group. In terms of Wales, we know we're going to have to beat the top teams to get a good foothold in the group."

Taken from the Herald