Hearts' Ruben turns attention on Caley game

RUBEN PALAZUELOS admits he and his team-mates were delighted to grind out a victory over Motherwell.

But the Spaniard insisted today they must put that vital win behind them and focus on the visit of Inverness this weekend.

The Highland side have a good away record in the league this season and currently sit in fourth position in the SPL, six points behind the Jambos.

Palazuelos knows that Hearts must be fully focused on Terry Butcher's side on Saturday if they are to bag another three points and said: "Everyone is happy right now, we won against Motherwell on Tuesday night and it was an important game for us.

"Now the game is over though, and we have got to look instead to the game against Inverness. We know that they are a difficult team to play against.

"It is important for us to keep winning but we will take it one game at a time and the first thing is to get all three points against Inverness." Palazuelos believes that manager Jim Jefferies has proved to be a popular appointment at Tynecastle with the players and that he has helped to cultivate a settled atmosphere at the club, both in training and on the field of play.

"I think everyone can see that under Jim Jefferies, everyone is happy, we all enjoy the training and we all have very good relations with the manager.

"We have got more confidence on the pitch and that gets better every time the team wins another game. It shows we are happy right now because we are playing a lot of good football and winning a lot of games as well.

"Hopefully we can stay in third position or more by the end of the season."

Hearts supporters firmly believe their side can split the Old Firm this season and claim second spot in the SPL for themselves.

However, Palazuelos insisted that there is still a lot of football to be played between now and the prizes being handed out at the end of the season. "I think it is possible, there are only three points between us and Celtic, but there is still a long way to go. I would like it if the fans were right and by April or May time we were in second position and in with a chance of playing in the Champions League."