Hearts defender, Alex Cochrane, has urged his teammates to push higher than third place, as he believes his team has a chance of taking downtheRangers and maybe even Celtic.
After a strong performance and finishing third last season, Hearts were optimistic about their chances to go further this season. However, the introduction of European football allowed injuries to soar in the squad, allowing for a drop in momentum, which in turn affected league results. Poor wee souls.
Now Hearts reckons that they bounced back from this ‘blip’ and are now just one point behind Aberdeen, who remain in third place despite back-to-back defeats to the two Glasgow sides.
Due to a large gap in club resources, third place is usually the end-of-season aim for many of the clubs in the Scottish Premiership, obviously out with Celtic and theRangers. However, Cochrane believes his squad should strive to challenge the big Glaswegian clubs and not settle for a meagre third place.
Alex Cochrane tries to get between Anthony Ralston and Liel Abada during the Cinch SPFL Premiership match between Hearts and Celtic at Tynecastle Park, on 31 July 2021. Photo Malcolm Mackenzie PSI
Cochrane also makes the point that the defiance in the Hearts squad, to get where they are now despite the issues they had earlier in the season, is proof that this squad is capable of competiting at the highest level.
As Reported by BBC, Cochrane said: “Considering the injuries we’ve had, this season is credit to the depth of squad and the good players we have to cover positions. To be third at Christmas would be very important for us and that’s what we want.”
“You have got to look above. You can’t just cruise and hope you get third place. You have got to challenge the teams above and try and make it as competitive as you can. We know it’s going to be a hard task but the squad we have this year is capable of competing with (the)Rangers and above.”
The idea of Hearts catching theRangers is perhaps possible if not probable but to then go on and chase down Celtic is fanciful, ridiculous and almost comical.
