Berra: Boo boys bang on to barrack players

CHRISTOPHE BERRA today admitted that Hearts deserved to be booed off the pitch by their fans at the weekend.

Saturday's disappointing 2-0 defeat by Kilmarnock at Tynecastle left the Jambos a massive eight points behind SPL leaders Celtic and was the third time in four home games they have left the field to the jeers of their own support.

The continual squad rotation implemented by boss Valdas Ivanauskas this season seems to be having a detrimental effect on the club's push for the SPL title and has tested the patience of many fans.

On Saturday there was widespread condemnation from the stands of the Lithuanian's substitutions and the final whistle was met with a cacophony of boos.

But Berra, rather refreshingly, insisted that the onus was on the players to lift their game and admitted the supporters were perfectly entitled to voice their disapproval at what they were seeing on the pitch.

"The fans deserved a victory on Saturday and they deserved a better performance than we gave them," said the centre-half, pictured.

"If we are getting beaten the crowd are going to get on your back and I don't have any problem with that. It would be the same if it was Manchester United, Chelsea or Barcelona and they pay their money to watch the game so have every right to voice their opinion.

"We can't win every match but at home we would expect to put in a much better display than we did at the weekend."

Saturday's result, coupled with Celtic's hard-fought 2-1 victory against Motherwell in Glasgow, has left the Gorgie outfit with a mountain to climb if they are to catch Gordon Strachan's men.

But while Berra conceded it would be extremely hard to catch the SPL leaders he insisted that nobody has given up hope yet.

Dunfermline are next to visit Tynecastle this weekend and the defender is simply concentrating on the need for maximum points from that clash to help his side get back on track.

"We had gone six games unbeaten and while that's unfortunately come to an end we now need to try and go on another run like that.

"We have to concentrate on getting the heads up in the dressing-room. Other results didn't go for us but there's only a third of the season gone and we still have to play Celtic three times so it's very much in our own hands still. We know it's going to be very hard and we'll have to be on the top of the game but there's no reason why we can't do it."

Taken from the Scotsman