Frail fires warning to Hearts stars after defeat

Hearts lost their Scottish Cup replay to Motherwell last week which, coupled with last night's 2-0 defeat at Hampden Park, leaves the club competing solely in the league.

Anyone who thinks they can tread water before heading off on holiday will incur Frail's wrath, though.

He said: "I've heard and read reports that if we lost last night that's our season over. Not for me it's not. I've told the players if anyone thinks their season is over they can stay in the dressing-room because I'm not interested in guys who want to just wallow in this and think 'can't wait till May so we can jet off to the sun'.

"I need guys who are just going to roll their sleeves up even more now. Our target at the minute has to be top six and from there we can maybe get within touching distance to go that little bit further.

"If they want to sit in there and think 'we're nearly into February now and it won't be long till the summer' then that won't get us anywhere.

"To be fair, they have been great and I can't go in and criticise them because the response we've had has been fantastic over the last few weeks.

"I don't expect them to leave it like this. Every game is a cup final for us now through to the end of the season, starting with Gretna a week on Saturday, and we need guys who want to play in them. I expect us to dust ourselves down for the Gretna game."

Hearts may consider offering terms to defender Alan Maybury once he settles the remaining six months of his contract with Leicester City. The Irishman is presently using training facilities at Riccarton and would not be bound by the transfer window should he becom
e a free agent.

Meanwhile, Hearts were left furious by yesterday's ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that Andy Webster need only reimburse them to the tune of £150,000 for breaching his contract in June 2006.

CAS judged that the defender, currently on loan to Rangers from Wigan, should only pay Hearts compensation for the final year of his contract having originally been ordered by FIFA to part with £625,000. Hearts were seeking in the region of £5million compensation.

The only available course of action for the Tynecastle hierarchy is to take the case to the Swiss Supreme Court and contest the FIFA ruling which allowed Webster to voluntarily opt out of his four-year contract after the third year. That option is not being ruled out by the club's lawyers.

• HEARTS are interested in Austrian midfielder Marco Michetslager, 17, who has been released by Rangers.

Taken from the Scotsman