Marius Zaliukas calm about taking on the role of team's elder statesman

He is only 26 but assumes veteran-like status in a first-team dressing room populated by adolescents. It has forced him to grow up, a process which finally seems to be bearing fruit on the pitch.

The Lithuanian will make his 100th appearance in maroon at Ibrox this afternoon, confident of damaging Rangers' title aspirations and extending Hearts' unbeaten league run to seven games. If he is to succeed, much will depend on his own defensive resilience.

He considers the energy of Riccarton rookies like Scott Robinson and Gordon Smith something of a secret weapon against Rangers and is happy to act as a father-figure to several graduates who have emerged from the club's youth academy.

"When I came here I was 22 and I was one of the younger boys in the side, the average age was quite high," said Zaliukas. "Now at 26 I am one of the oldest and that is quite hard. I have to set an example to the younger ones, and we have a lot of them."

Lack of experience should be no deterrent in Glasgow, however. "We have won in one half of Glasgow already this season and we hope we can go to the other half and do the same," he continued. "We have gone six games unbeaten now so we have confidence and obviously we want to win to put Hibs under pressure above us.

"I was actually happy to see the (Rangers v Hamilton Scottish Cup] game go to extra-time the other night because I knew they only had three days until our game. They had to play late into the evening, it was very cold I imagine and that obviously takes more energy out of players. They have players out but they have more of a strike force to choose from, and the young players they have will try to prove to their manager they are good enough, so it is going to be hard for us. It is hard without recognised strikers because you don't really know what you are going to do, but that makes it more interesting.

"I think the gap between every team has become smaller and, in a couple of years, I believe more teams will be able to challenge for the title. Hearts could do that, but we will need to wait and see, because every year we have player rotation.

"I don't think Celtic and Rangers are going down, I think they are holding their level. But other teams are becoming harder and harder to beat. Every game is a hard game in this league. Maybe more teams now feel they have enough confidence to beat all the other teams. Maybe we feel that as well. For now the most important thing is for us to finish in the top six and then, after the split, we will see what position we are in. But of course we want to finish in third."

Zaliukas appears to have put last season's indiscipline behind him, although the current campaign has been a source of frustration due to persistent injuries.

"I hope that (suspension] never happens again. I think I am just getting older," he said. "Before I came over here I wasn't that aggressive, but here if you want to play you have to learn to be strong. So I would say I learned that here, but I also know I am not so good if I am sitting in the stand.

"Last season I did the wrong thing twice. I thought that maybe after I came back from my suspension it was going to be the same. But I had an injury and since I have came back into the side it has been okay. I have only had one yellow. Touch wood."