Ivanauskas admits Hartley will start game against United

PAUL Hartley will start for Hearts against Dundee United this afternoon after being restricted to a substitute's appearance last week. Valdas Ivanauskas, the Hearts coach, finally admitted the playmaker would be in his line-up after initially claiming at a Riccarton press conference that any information about his team would be advantageous to United.

"We are 24 hours from kick-off, and if Paul is not ill or injured he will start the game," said Ivanauskas, who revealed centre-back Christophe Berra would also be recalled after being rested last week. "It was positive against Aberdeen [when Hartley came on], but before that there were also many positive chances.
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"Paul scored a goal, or at least had the ball in the net. And for me there was a big, big question if it was offside or not. It was the same with the goal we lost."

Berra is likely to start at centre-half alongside Marius Zaliukas, who was played out of position last week in midfield. Ibrahim Tall and Jose Goncalves made up a very ill-at-ease central-defensive pairing, but Tall is ill and Goncalves will probably be on the bench.

Robbie Neilson, too, may get no further than the list of substitutes after apparently falling out of favour. The Scotland full-back was omitted from the squad last week, though Ivanauskas claimed there was no problem.

"Robbie was not injured, but in his position we have other players," the coach said. "He's a very big guy and I hope he's happy."

But Neilson can hardly be happy to see his place going to Nerijus Barasa. The Lithuanian right-back is closer to match fitness than he was when thrust into the team, but his lack of finesse has left many Hearts fans less than impressed.

Up front, Roman Bednar will be in contention to start alongside Andrius Velicka, while in midfield Julien Brellier is fit again but will probably not start. Bruno Aguiar was Hearts' most influential player before the arrival of Hartley in last week's 1-0 defeat, and those two are likely to be paired in midfield.

Ivanauskas said he believed Hartley and Craig Gordon both had futures at the club despite having disciplinary hearings over the past two weeks, and said he had yet to discuss any potential strengthening of the squad with Vladimir Romanov, the club's majority shareholder. "I have two or three players in my vision," he said.

The coach also said Vyacheslav Hleb, younger brother of Arsenal's Aleksandr Hleb who had been on trial, had been allowed to return home as he was not currently eligible for a work permit.

Taken from the Scotsman