Inverness boss is praying Hearts can pull through

Published on 09/11/2012 12:00

INVERNESS manager Terry Butcher insisted today that Scottish football can’t afford to lose a team of Hearts’ calibre from the top flight.

Just a few months after Rangers were liquidated, Hearts are facing the prospect of going bust unless their supporters can provide emergency financial backing. The Tynecastle side have only a few days to reach an agreement with HMRC over an unpaid tax bill or face extinction – and Butcher, for one, hopes that they can bring themselves back from the brink.

Butcher, whose side host Hearts on SPL business tomorrow, said: “We hope they do survive and get this sorted out because they are a great club, a really great club. I think that they have got a deadline to meet, from what I can make out, and you have to hope they can meet it. We don’t want another SPL club going out of business because I think it has been a cracking season so far. It is open, it is competitive

“At the same time we have got our own unbeaten run to protect and to hopefully enhance. Obviously we have got a game to play tomorrow and we have got to focus on ourselves and I am sure that the Hearts players will deal with the situation.

“We want to climb that league table as much as we can and we know that games against Hearts are always exciting.”

Butcher revealed that Ross Draper is likely to be missing tomorrow after suffering an ankle injury, but he has no other major worries.