SANTA PAUSE
HEARTS
CHRISTOPHE BERRA turned the Scrooge to cancel Christmas but Olly Lee swears the Hearts players are all singing from the same carol sheet.
The Jambos squad’s plans to jet out to Prague for a festive knees-up last Saturday were grounded by their humiliating 5-0 battering at Livingston the night before.
Scrapping the shindig was suggested by captain Berra as the shellshocked players sloped home on the team bus back to Edinburgh.
But Lee is adamant the call was unanimous after shipping five goals in a catastrophic 14-minute collapse.
The midfielder said: “Skip (Berra) took charge of that when we were on the coach and said it wasn’t the right thing to do. Everyone agreed.
“We all knew we didn’t deserve to be out enjoying ourselves after a result like that. There was never any question, straight away it was off.
“It is a shame because it would have been nice to have some team bonding but you don’t feel the same happiness after a 5-0 defeat.
“So we’ve had a hard week and will do our best to put in a good display on Saturday against Aberdeen.”
Lee admits the second-half collapse BY ALAN MARSHALL in West Lothian proved a watershed moment, with matters coming to a head when Hearts returned to training on Monday.
The English midfielder fully expects that clear-the-air session to help halt a slide of just one win from their last nine matches ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Pittodrie.
Lee added: “We have had some frank discussions and a lot of things have been said that needed to be said.
“Friday was unacceptable and we had got to a stage where a few home truths needed to be said. They have been said now and we all feel a lot better after getting things off our chest.
“We let people down on Friday and are determined to put it right.
Hearts will be able to call upon Steven Naismith tomorrow for the first time since he limped out of the Betfred Cup semi-final against Celtic with a knee injury in October. Since then the