Hearts boss lays down marker for high-flying players

CRAIG BROWN'S assertion that Hearts possess a stronger squad than Rangers has been welcomed by the Edinburgh club's manager, Jim Jefferies.

However, Jefferies also challenged his players to live up to Brown's expectations and push for second place during the closing weeks of the season.

The Aberdeen manager, who welcomed Jefferies and Hearts to Pittodrie for today's SPL meeting, explained to the Evening News earlier this week his belief that Hearts hold a slight advantage over Rangers in the quest to finish second in the SPL.

Brown said the Tynecastle squad is stronger than that currently at Walter Smith's disposal, comments which have been cautiously received by Jefferies. Although happy with the sentiment from a fellow SPL manager, he said his players must now prove Brown correct.

"We've got to go and prove he's right," said Jefferies. "We've never been saying that we'll finish second. It's nice of Craig to say it but we've got to prove him right. The only way we can do that is by winning games and trying to do our best to go further.

"I hope the players think they can get second. We've never gone shouting about it and we aren't going to. What we've got to do is go and try to achieve it. If they believe that, my job is only tell them that it can be possible. I won't do it through the papers, I'll tell them in the dressing room.

"If you look at our record this year and the number of wins we have, these players have done fantastically well. They deserve all the praise going about. Sometimes we play well, sometimes we have to grind out results. That's what you do in a season. We're doing fine, we just want to continue what we're doing. It would be a great achievement if we could secure third place over the next few weeks.

"We're keeping in there. If we get third place - it's still not a foregone conclusion - with a few games to spare then we can see what we can do. If we are keeping in touch with Rangers then it will give us something to go and play for. It would be a strange scenario to clinch third place quickly and yet be too far away from the team above you (to catch them). Who would have thought at the start of the season that anyone would be anywhere as near as we are?

"Right now we're focusing on trying to win games to clinch it, keeping on the coat tails of the team above, and then we see where we are. We still have to play Rangers, who knows what can happen?"

Jefferies is keen not to become pre-occupied in discussing his team's prospects of splitting the Old Firm until third place and European football is secured. "We always said our target was third," he stated. "Now we've got there, with the cushion we have, it's a big jump to go from where we were last year to expecting us to win the title. We're putting in a really good challenge and that shows there's been massive improvement.

"The players have a bit of confidence and a bit of belief. They have a great resilience and determination about them. We keep hitting it home that it's about how they handle the other teams in the league to keep in touch at the top. Rangers and Celtic don't always play well but they get results and we're proving we can do that as well."

Rangers' progress in the Europa League after eliminating Sporting Lisbon on Thursday evening will add to their already congested fixture list. But Jefferies does not necessarily feel that accords Hearts any advantage for the pursuit of second place.

"They've always seemed to handle it in the past and come through it. Everyone was writing them off on Thursday night after the performance against Celtic. I was in the car with Billy Brown and I said to him it would be just like the thing if Rangers got a result because that's what they tend to do. Every time their backs are against the wall they come up with a result.

"The people in charge there know what they are doing. Pressure is on them to get results. When they get a bad result, they've got that ability to bounce back. They did it on Thursday and it was a fantastic result."