Simmons: Hearts can beat Blues

STEPHEN SIMMONS insisted today it's about time his former Hearts team-mates started to make headlines on the pitch rather than off it - beginning with Sunday's crunch clash with Rangers.

The midfielder, part of the last Jambos side to beat their Glasgow rivals, ended an eight-year spell with the club in January when he put pen to paper on a move that took him just across the Firth of Forth to Dunfermline.

In the ten short months since Simmons quit the Capital, a lot has happened with Graham Rix being sacked as boss, Valdas Ivanauskas taking over and then being given extended "sick-leave", Hearts winning the Tennent's Scottish Cup and more recently the team's form dipping and Steven Pressley being stripped of his captaincy.

After holding things together so well last term despite the persistent rumours that all was not well behind the scenes, the cracks are finally beginning to show.

Pressley's recent statement to the media admitting there was "significant unrest within the dressing room" only confirmed what many people had long suspected.

There may have been no immediate reaction to the skipper's comments from club owner Vladimir Romanov but the fans' favourite now appears to be paying the price for airing his concerns with the Evening News learning there was a concerted plot behind the scenes at Tynecastle to oust him as captain.

Whether Pressley turns out for the Jambos again remains to be seen although, even with him in the side, the Gorgie club have failed to produce anything like the kind of displays that served them so well last season. Hearts are effectively out of the title race and face a real fight for second, and even third place in the SPL. They have the chance to get back on track this weekend when Rangers are the visitors to Edinburgh and Simmons, left, believes it's vital the home side regain focus.

"I'm sick of reading about the off-field stuff to be honest," he said. "Big Elvis, Craig Gordon and Paul Hartley have said that they need a bit of consistency and that all this changing hasn't been doing them any favours as you've seen this season.

"I suppose it's up to Mr Romanov at the end of the day because he's the main man and what he says goes. I still keep in touch with Paul Hartley and I'm sure he's sick of everything that's been going on - anybody would be - especially with the season they had last year.

"For it to go wrong this season is a big disappointment for them and they need to start getting results on the pitch."

Simmons knows exactly what it's like to defeat Rangers while wearing the maroon of Hearts having come on a substitute midway through the first half during the Jambos' 1-0 win against the Govan club at the start of last season. Czech striker Roman Bednar grabbed what proved to be the only goal of the game in the 14th minute but had to limp off ten minutes later after a clumsy challenge by Marvin Andrews which allowed Simmons to be introduced.

At that stage of the campaign Hearts were flying high at the top of the SPL table and there was a real belief among the players, coaching staff and supporters that they had the ability to break the Old Firm's dominance on the Scottish game.

Of course, as events transpired, Celtic won the SPL title at a canter and Hearts will go into Sunday's game with spirits severely deflated compared to that match more than 12 months ago.

Simmons, however, insisted that one thing that remains the same is the need to get the first goal of the game.

"If you can score first against either of the Old Firm then you have a chance," said Simmons.

"We started last season really well under George Burley and the key for us is that we were starting games well and catching teams out early on. I'm sure the Hearts players will be going into this game in a totally different frame of mind to the one they had then, but the need to score early and not concede remains the same.

"It's at Tynecastle which will help Hearts because it's a difficult place to go although, having said that, we went there recently and came away with a well deserved point.

"Hearts haven't really clicked yet and nor have Rangers so you could find that both teams pretty much cancel each other out.

"They are both good teams though and regardless of what people are saying I'm pretty sure that Celtic, Rangers and Hearts will occupy the top three places at the end of the season."

Rangers, like Hearts, have come in for fair amount of criticism this season with the appointment of Frenchman Paul le Guen over the summer failing to spark the title challenge that was expected.

Domestically the Ibrox outfit have also struggled and they find themselves sitting level with Hearts in joint second place in the table going into Sunday's televised showdown.

They were able to rein the Jambos in thanks to a 2-0 victory over Dunfermline in Govan last weekend, a match in which Simmons played the full 90 minutes in the heart of the Pars midfield.

And while the 24-year-old conceded they were not firing on all cylinders he insisted Rangers were still more than capable of travelling to Gorgie and clicking on the day.

"You are always going to be up against it when you play against Rangers, but when they missed a few early chances their fans started to get on their backs and that gave us a bit more belief," he said.

"We went there and from the start we tried to frustrate them and limit the chances that they got. We knew that we would have to take our chances when they came along but unfortunately it didn't work out for us.

"Once they get a couple of results, and that's one against us, I'm sure they will click because you don't just turn into a bad team overnight. They have too many quality players for that to happen.

"They may not be firing on all cylinders but they still have a lot of quality. The players they've got there's no doubt that things will turn for them.

"Once they got the first goal you could see the lift it gave their players and I didn't fancy us to get anything from that point.

"That's why it's so important who gets the first goal at the weekend and it's certainly set up to be a cracking game. I think I'll sit on the fence and say it'll be a draw!"

Taken from the Scotsman