HARTLEY SET TO START

Hearts head coach Valdas Ivanauskas has confirmed he will restore Paul Hartley to the starting line-up for the trip to Dundee United.

The Scotland midfielder was named on the bench for last Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Aberdeen, two days after attending a disciplinary meeting at Tynecastle.

The 30-year-old injected new life into the team after coming on and had a goal controversially disallowed for offside.

Ivanauskas was reluctant to give his selection away, but when encouraged to give Jambos fans a boost before the Bank of Scotland Premier League clash at Tannadice, he caved in.

"If not ill or injured after training, Paul Hartley will start the game tomorrow," he said.

"We make mistakes and we need to learn from these mistakes. It is possible other players will be on the pitch."

Craig Gordon followed Hartley in having talks with club officials this week over their support for former captain Steven Pressley's criticism of majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov's regime.

Ivanauskas claimed the meeting had a "positive result" despite the new skipper earlier saying the outcome was undecided.

The Lithuanian has had the unenviable task of fielding questions over the club's treatment of Gordon, Hartley and Pressley, who left the club two weeks ago.

He returned to Tynecastle at the end of November after a six-week spell on sick leave and his mood visibly slumped when the discussion focused on the ongoing disagreement.

The former Hamburg striker preferred to focus on turning round Hearts' poor run of just one win in their last 11 games.

"I hope last Tuesday was the last discussion about disciplinary hearings," Ivanauskas said.

"It's not easy but we need now to concentrate on football.

"Our results are not what I want and not what the players want and also what the club wants.

"We need to change the situation as soon as possible. We have a lot of games now.

"For me and the players mentally it's very, very important to get results.

"It is difficult in our situation because our self confidence is not what it was earlier in the season and last season."

The game sees one of Ivanauskas' predecessors, Craig Levein, take on his former club for the first time since he and assistant Peter Houston took over at United.

Levein has guided the Terrors to five victories in seven games.

Hearts skipper Gordon said: "I've got a lot to thank those guys for - they gave me my chance here at Hearts and really set me on the road to where I am just now.

"I'm sure they will be very organised. He (Levein) has done that in a short space of time as I knew he would. They have been hard to beat since he went there."

Meanwhile, Ivanauskas revealed Vyacheslav Hleb was unlikely to sign for the Jambos in the near future amid work permit problems.

The Belarus forward - brother of Arsenal star Alexander - trained with Hearts this week but has not played enough international games in recent months.

And Ivanauskas predicted he would not discuss any new arrivals with Romanov before the new year.

He said: "I have two or three players in my vision. We also need to think about our squad - a lot of players don't play regularly."

Teams:

Dundee Utd (from): Stillie, Mair, McCracken, Archibald, Conway, Kerr, Robertson, Robson, Samuel, Robb, Goodwillie, McLean, Duff, Cameron, Kenneth, Smith, Burnett, Callaghan.

Hearts (from): Gordon, Barasa, Zaliukas, Hartley, Fyssas, Goncalves, Berra, Aguiar, Mikoliunas, McCann, Velicka, Jankauskas, Pospisil, Bednar, Banks, Driver, Wallace, Brellier.

Taken from sportinglife.com