HARTLEY: LEAGUE GLORY BID ALL OVER

PAUL HARTLEY last night admitted Hearts' refusal to pitch contract rebel Julien Brellier into Saturday's clash with Celtic might have cost the club their last chance of the title.

The Jambos were coasting to a 1-0 win which would have cut the gap at the top to seven points when midfield anchorman Marius Zaliukas damageda knee.

Brellier twice stripped off his tracksuit top but coach Eduard Malofeev refused to make the substitution and on both occasions ordered Zaliukas to hobble back into the action.

Stand-in skipper Hartley, who turned in a man-of-thematch performance, was left to sigh: "I think he (Zaliukas) took a bad knock on his knee but he carried on.

"At the end of the day it's not my decision to take players off but if someone's carrying an injury, especially at a place like this, then the right thing to do is maybe take the player off. But he managed to stay on.

"I was busy trying to do my own job and trying to work hard but you do need 11 fit players on the park.

"You know Celtic are going to throw everything at you in the last five or 10 minutes and you need everybody on the park."

When asked if Malofeev's reluctance to throw on Brellier might be linked with the Frenchman's bitter dispute with club owner Vladimir Romanov, Hartley said: "I don't know. There is obviously a situation between Julien and the owner over his contract but I don't know the ins and outs.

"All I know is that you want your best players out there and Julien was one of our best players last season - in that specific position as a holding midfielder.

"But it's not up to me to pick the team."

Malofeev insisted he was too frightened to make a third change after have botched two earlier substitutions.

When asked about his decision to order Zaliukas to hobble on he said: "There is no football without injuries. But when the injury is small, you just have to get through it and go on no matter what.

"A real man has to forget the pain and suffering and get on with the job. There is no other choice.

"I could have brought Brellier on - but I had already made two substitutions which turned out to be unsuccessful and who's to say a third wouldn't have worked out just as badly?

"I mean, bringing him on might have turned the game against us.

"Look at Gordon Strachan. He made a change and brought on the Czech player who then scored a goal so he got lucky.

"I brought off Bruno Aguiar because he had run here and here and here and was very tired. But now I'm thinking I should have left him on."

Hartley concedes Hearts are left with a mountain to climb to stop Celtic's relentless march to a second successive league title.

And he believes the constant tinkering with the team is making the job even harder.

Half-time sub Nerijus Barasa became the 32nd player to have featured in the top team since the start of the season.

Hartley said: "I've always said we will need our strongest team on the park - our best 11 players - if we are going to challenge for things. I still stick by that.

"It's a big gap now. We will not give up but it's going to be extremely difficult. We'd have to go on a magnificent run to have any chance but we will keep trying.

"If we had beaten Celtic it would have been back to seven points. We will continue to chase them until it's impossible.

"They are the most consistent team in the league but on this performance there's not that much between us.

"We looked very comfortable and could maybe have scored a couple more goals.

"I did think we had it won because we were playing so well. The tactics were spot on.

"We created numerous chances but we couldn't score the second goal to kill the game off."

Taken from the Daily Record