2019 WILL BE BERRA
Berra scrapped shindig but derby delight guarantees Hearts’ hootenanny
LIVINGSTON striker Jack Hamilton has been cleared to face Hearts in the Scottish Cup after the Lions won their SFA appeal.
They contested a straight red shown in the 0-0 draw with Dundee on Boxing Day that earned a two-match ban for violent conduct.
Ref Bobby Madden ruled he’d raised his hands to Darren O’Dea’s face but the hearing upheld the appeal, reducing the red to a yellow.
CHRISTMAS was cancelled at Tynecastle but party pooper Christophe Berra reckons the derby joy will ensure it’s a happy New Year in Gorgie.
The Hearts skipper cancelled the Jambos’ night out in December in the wake of the shambolic 5-0 defeat at Livingston.
Craig Levein’s men shelved their shindig but saved their celebrations for Easter Road at the weekend as they came out on top against their Edinburgh foes.
Berra admitted the victory will send his side into the top flight’s winter break with a spring in their step with Hearts back on track following a wretched couple of months.
He said: “I’d have taken a win at Easter Road over a Christmas party any day of the week.
“It’s paid dividends. The fans will go away happy and have a great New Year.
“We’ll have a rest for a week but we’ll come back ready to go again for the rest of the season. “The Livingston game was unacceptable but I’m sure Saturday will have wiped that away from a lot of fans’ memories. “I’m sure a lot of fans would have taken that and a win at Easter Road going into the winter break. “It wasn’t good enough that night. We didn’t show the determination and grit we showed against Hibs. “It’s something we’ve been notorious for but we’ve got that added quality too.” Berra admitted it was sweet sinking Hibs and silencing Easter Road for the first time since 2014. A stunner from Olly Lee, below, split the sides and fired the Jambos into the chasing pack at the top of the league. Berra said: “It started from getting stick in the warm-up! “You just laugh it off and hope it comes back to haunt them. That was the case on Saturday. “These wins against your bitter rivals away from home don’t come around very often so when they do you need to cherish them. “You could see how much it meant to the fans and I can assure them it meant just as much to the players. “I’ve seen videos from back in the day and sometimes the stadiums weren’t full. “It shows how good the league is and how well the two teams are supported. “The emotions at the end, I don’t think I’ve been like that for a while. It just shows what the club means to me. It was sometimes a wee bit backs to the wall then when the final whistle goes it’s a release.
“We’ve had to take the criticism on the chin recently. We got it after Aberdeen when we didn’t actually play that badly.
“But in football you need to bounce back. We were comfortable against Hamilton and it doesn’t matter how you win the derby. You take any win against Hibs.”
Hearts made an incredible start to the campaign before hitting the buffers during a miserable autumn run.
But back-to-back wins against Hamilton and Hibs ensured they finished 2018 just six points off the top and looking to get key men back for the second half of the campaign.
Berra insisted the Jambos are bang in the mix at the business end of the division.
He said: “There are always ups and downs. Celtic have ran away with things a bit in recent seasons but they have dropped points this season as well.
“We’ve been a bit of a yo-yo club between the top six but we want to finish top four and qualify for Europe.
“We believe we can achieve it but there’s a long way to go and there’s so many teams who are holding their own, like Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, St Johnstone.
“You’re not going to get easy games, you need to dig in to get results. It looks like it’s going to be a competitive league. Celtic at home are notoriously strong.
“I don’t know if it’s four defeats away from home for them which is unlike them. I’m sure they’ll strengthen but that’s a challenge I’m sure other teams will look forward too.”
Hearts will head to Spain during the break and Berra admitted the shutdown has arrived at a good time with the Tynecastle treatment room working overtime in recent months.
The captain said: “We’ll have a week off to recharge, We have another boy coming in – David Vanecek – who will hopefully hit the ground running and we’ll have key players back fit again.
“We might strengthen as well. If you are going to be competing at the top end of the table you need everyone fit and competing for places in the squad.
“That’s something I’m sure the gaffer is looking at.
“It’s so tightly congested in the top six but if you want to be up there you need to be winning big games like the ones against Hibs.
“They’ve had some good results of late against the Old Firm and we were probably underdogs – but we have proved a few doubters wrong.
“That’s half the season gone so we’ll have a week off then regroup. Hopefully we can pick up where we left off.”