Hearts 'haven't given up on Barr'

HEARTS boss Jim Jefferies today insisted he hasn't "given up" on Darren Barr and has vowed to work with the axed defender to rebuild his confidence.

Barr was dropped for Saturday's 2-0 home defeat by Motherwell after Jefferies felt the former Falkirk player had been at fault for some of the goals conceded by Hearts in recent games.

The Tynecastle boss believes Barr has struggled to fill in as a central defender and didn't feel it was right to play him at right-back against Motherwell at a time when he claims the player is making mistakes due to the fact he's trying too hard.

But Jefferies insists Barr, who was signed on a pre-contract before his own arrival back at Hearts earlier this year, has not been tossed on to the scrapheap. And he will work with him in exactly the same way as he did in the past with the likes of Thomas Flogel and Steven Pressley after they suffered slow starts to their Hearts' careers.

"I pulled Darren aside after I had named the team on Saturday and told him I certainly wasn't giving up on him, far from it," Jefferies told the Evening News. "He hasn't been discarded or anything like that.

"He's come in here feeling he has something to prove but, in trying to do that, I think it's a case of him not thinking clearly and not making the right decisions. But we will work with him and get it right."

Jefferies decided to give Barr a break after he suffered an uncomfortable return to Falkirk as his new club crashed out of the League Cup last Tuesday night.

"We looked at the video from the other night and he did all the wrong things," added Jefferies. "I wasn't happy with some of the opportunities Inverness had the previous week. I thought the goal we lost up there was a bad defensive one as well. I have said it often that I don't see Darren as a central defender - he's a right back covering in there."