Hibs can halt Hearts’ streak, promises Allan

SCOTT ALLAN has pledged to shatter Hearts’ unbeaten record as his resurgent Hibs side head to Tynecastle on Saturday. The 23-year-old, recently described as the best player in the Championship by manager Alan Stubbs, admitted he has been impressed by Hearts going 18 games unbeaten under Robbie Neilson. But after the Easter Road side demolished Rangers 4-0 last

weekend, the former Scotland Under-21 star issued a stark warning that Hibs are ready and able to inflict their city rivals’ first league loss of the season. ‘Hearts have been the most consistent team in the league, getting results at hard grounds, and they are unbeaten,’ Allan said. ‘But records are there to be broken and I fancy us to go there and get something. We want to put on a good performance and be the first team to beat them. ‘Obviously it’s a scalp if a team has gone the season so far without being beaten, so we want to go there and win. ‘I came on with five minutes to go in the first derby this season at Tynecastle (Hearts won 2-1) but this is a different Hibs team. We’ve put a few wins together recently, so this is a good test for us this week.’ Despite being 19 points behind in the race for the Championship title, Allan believes beating Rangers and Hearts over the space of a week — after twice running Neilson’s side close this season — would give his side a timely lift ahead of the second half of the campaign. ‘If we were to manage back-to-back wins over the two teams in front of us, it would be a real confidence boost,’ he said. ‘Can we catch Hearts? It’s a long season and you never know what can happen, but we just need to look after our own results. ‘We thought we would nick something from Hearts earlier this season at Easter Road but they managed to get themselves back into the game. They scored in injury time to get a draw but football lasts 90 minutes and it was some strike from the boy (Alim Ozturk), so fair play to him. ‘But it’s all clicking into place for us now and we are putting good performances and results together. Earlier in the season we were playing some good football but we weren’t coming away with the results we wanted. ‘Hearts have adjusted the best and quickest to the Championship. That’s why they’re the top of the league. But we want to build on what we have done in the last three games. We want to go to Tynecastle and win.’