Valdas calls on Elliot to show him that he's indispensable

VALDAS IVANAUSKAS welcomed Calum Elliot back to Hearts with a place in the starting line-up against Dunfermline and then urged the young striker to make it impossible to leave him out of his team.

Elliot was back in a Hearts jersey for the first time since being loaned out to Motherwell in August and narrowly missed out on making a scoring return, a late block from Roddy McKenzie denying him.
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Fir Park boss Maurice Malpas had hoped to keep the 19-year-old frontman - who scored twice in his spell with Motherwell - until the end of the season but both the player and Ivanauskas were keen for him to return to Tynecastle.

He trained with the Steelmen on Monday but came straight back into the side which defeated Stephen Kenny's struggling Dunfermline 1-0 at East End Park yesterday afternoon.

The hitman feels he has returned to Hearts a stronger and more confident player as a result of his loan spell and Ivanauskas admitted that Elliot had done more than enough to show that his all-round game has improved in the time he has been away.

Elliot has admitted he was initially disappointed to have been farmed out by Hearts, but Ivanauskas today reassured him that he is part of the club's plans for the future.

The Hearts boss said: "I know Calum very well from last season, I know what he can do. He is a good young player and has just come back to the club and has been working hard.

"He maybe didn't have a lot of chances against Dunfermline yesterday but he worked well for the team, that is the important thing for me.

"I am happy for him because he has come back much stronger and much more solid. If he works hard and is professional he has a big chance to play for the team every week. Calum's future is at Hearts."

Ivanauskas, who saw Czech striker Michal Pospisil score his first goal in 11 matches to earn Hearts all three points at East End Park, is hoping to add to his squad in the transfer window but warned supporters not to expect a deluge of new players. With Elliot bolstering the striking department, Ivanauskas is hoping to add quality, not quantity, to other areas of the team.

He added: "We have a lot of strikers, that is not the problem for us.

"We are looking for new players, we have a big squad but if we find one quality player or two quality players then we will take them. Team spirit is now great and I hope that it stays like that until the end of the season."

Ivanauskas will have to wait to find out if Lee Wallace will be fit for this weekend's trip to Stair Park.

The left-back limped out of yesterday's match and is a doubt for the Scottish Cup third-round tie against Stranraer on Saturday.

Taken from the Scotsman