Hearts' Jonsson happy to help countryman Palsson - until derby day comes

EGGERT JONSSON has spent the last fortnight showing his compatriot Victor Palsson around Edinburgh in the hope that Hibernian's new midfield signing can settle quickly. But, come derby day on Sunday, April 3, the Hearts defender intends to make it hell for his fellow Icelander.

Palsson, 19, joined Hibernian from Liverpool last month and is a colleague of Jonsson's from their time with Iceland's under-21 squad. He consulted the Hearts player before moving to Scotland and was given a glowing recommendation of life in the Capital.

However, when the city's two football clubs meet at Easter Road in eight weeks' time, Jonsson will leave pleasantries firmly aside for the afternoon.

"Victor signed for them a couple of weeks ago. I played with him a few times with the Icelandic under-21s and I've been showing him around the city," said Jonsson, who has lived in Edinburgh for six years after leaving Iceland as a teenager to sign for Hearts.

"He phoned me up and asked me about the city. He's looking to get some first-team football after not really getting a chance at Liverpool. I like Edinburgh as a city but obviously he's in the wrong team from my point of view. I think it's a good move for him. I wish him all the best but not on derby day."

Hearts will view the meeting with Hibernian as another chance to secure third place in the SPL. They cannot be discounted from the title race and still retain strong hopes of usurping Rangers to split the Old Firm and finish second this season. However, recent defeats to both Old Firm clubs in Glasgow were something of a setback to their aspirations.

Jonsson said third place and European football is Hearts' clear priority between now and the league split in mid-April.

"We are looking to secure third place now. With Andy Webster coming in it's going to help us even more," he explained. "If we had got better results against the Old Firm then we would have been right in there. We didn't manage that and we're a bit disappointed, especially with the Celtic game when we just played really badly. We have seven or eight games coming up now where we need to get back to winning ways. We want to get on another run like we were on before. If we manage to do that then hopefully we can step up but it's not really up to us.

"If we are going to get back into it it's going to be down to the Old Firm losing points. We still need to win games and that's what we're looking to do and then see where it takes us."

Acknowledging the radical improvement in Hearts' discipline since Jim Jefferies returned to Tynecastle just over a year ago, Jonsson cited the fear of his manager in a fit of rage as the reason behind the better behaviour.

"People said we had bad discipline over the last few years, getting too many people sent off. Since the manager came in it's been more strict than under previous managers. The players know that if they do something stupid the manager isn't going to be happy. He's told us that and we know the rules that apply.

"If the players do something they are not supposed to do then the manager is going to get angry. Players are more wary of that now than what they were before. You don't really want to see him angry. If you are unlucky enough to see it happen then you don't really want to get into it.

"We've been on a good run this year so we've kept him mainly happy. It's all good just now and hopefully we can keep it going because we don't really want to get into the situation where he's angry.

"If you are more disciplined then it's always going to help you. Discipline doesn't help us score goals but it helps the all-round way we play. We aren't getting as many people sent. It's always better playing eleven against eleven instead of eleven against ten or sometimes nine."