Jonsson: I wish Hearts could have taken United's part in Greek farce

The Tannadice side were forced to wait until just 24 hours before their game to find out where the tie would be played after their hosts' own ground, the Olympic Stadium, was declared unplayable due to a waterlogged pitch.

A switch of venue to the home of rivals Panionios also had to be scrapped after their ground was vandalised and pitch torn up, leaving them to play the match at Olympiakos' ground.

The match ended up being played out in front of just 500 United supporters after AEK's fans were banned from the game and United went out on aggregate with a 1-1 draw when one more away goal would have put them through.

But ahead of tomorrow's SPL clash with United at Tynecastle, Jonsson admitted that he still felt a pang of jealousy.

The Hearts players have had to sit back and watch as the Tangerines, Motherwell, Celtic and Hibs have all had a chance to test themselves against European opposition.

Jonsson believes Hearts should be competing in Europe every year and insists that Jim Jefferies and co now have the squad and spirit at their disposal to qualify this season.

The versatile midfielder - who often plays in defence - said: "United had a good season last time, they finished third in the league and won the Scottish Cup and they deserved to get into Europe. The way that things developed for them before the AEK game wasn't ideal from their point of view. None of it was their fault, though.

"To be honest, we should be in there too, we think that a team like Hearts should be finishing higher than we achieved last year. We should be in Europe every season.

"All that we can do is make sure that we play well enough to end the season in one of the European places this time around.

"We have had a much better start to our season than last year. We started quite badly last year and at one stage, back in October, I think we were only three points away from being bottom of the table.

"We have got off to a good start and we want to keep that going to give ourselves the best chance we can to get third spot this year.

"It is a good chance to show everyone how good a team they are. United are coming to Tynecastle, we are the home side and we will have the fans behind us. Hopefully we can give the supporters a good day and show them that we should be higher up the table than we were last season.

Jonsson believes that the addition of striker Kevin Kyle to the mix over the summer has given his side a host of new options when it comes to attacking.

But he maintains that, despite his team-mate's height, the long ball is not the approach that brings the best out in the hitman and instead insisted that playing the game on the deck suits the big man better.

Jonsson added: "He is a big guy and everyone talks about that side of his game but I don't think that is his biggest asset. If you just kick it up the park I don't think that you get the best out of him.

"We like to keep playing the ball on the ground and in the box is where he becomes the biggest threat. With crosses and things like that I think he is going to give us a massive advantage because of his height.

"He is a good finisher and scored a goal on Tuesday, as well as his penalty against Hamilton.

"That is good for his confidence and he is going to give us more options, that's going to be good for the team."