Hearts boss Craig Levein has backed his fringe players despite the Tynecastle side going down 2-1 to Aberdeen on Friday night.
With the Scottish Cup Final only a fortnight away, Levein made a host of changes, bringing in fringe players to give them a chance to fight for a cup final place.
Even though Hearts lost, Levein feels that some players made their case to feature in the cup final squad.
“Loads of effort”
(Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)
“There was loads of effort and desire from players trying to prove they should be in the cup final squad, which is what I was hoping for” he said, as reported by the Edinburgh Evening News.
One player who impressed in particular was Bobby Burns, who scored his first goal for the Tynecastle side. Should Burns also play well in the final league game of the season, he could well feature in the cup final squad.
(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
When will injured players return?
It will be interesting to see if the likes of Peter Haring and Uche Ikpeazu return to the Hearts squad for the last league game of the season.
(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
The Jambos take on Celtic in the league before facing the same side in the cup final. Naturally the cup game is far more important.
But Levein will hope to give Hearts’ injured players some game time instead of throwing them straight into the cup final team.
It is decision that the Hearts manager will have to get right.