Hearts embracing huge week as they eye cup semi spot
Hearts are "taking nothing for granted" ahead of Scottish Women’s Cup quarter-final says Sean Burt.
Hearts will take nothing for granted as they bid to reach the Scottish Women’s Cup semi-final, says assistant head coach Sean Burt.
However, they know they have to overcome a very capable opponent in SWPL 2 promotion hopefuls Kilmarnock.
It’s a huge week for Eva Olid’s side after the Edinburgh club announced they are moving into a semi-pro set-up next season.
“There’s going to be a real intensity about training this week”, Burt told Anyone’s Game.
“The whole club, the management team and the players; we are really going to embrace that.”
Hearts state the move to semi-professionalism aims to attract new players with fresh investment, the chance to use world-class training facilities, and the prospect of being involved on big stages.
Now the women in maroon will be hoping to pounce on the news as they host Andy Gardner’s side at Oriam on Friday night in a huge quarter-final clash.
Burt said: “Kilmarnock are a good side. We’ve watched them several times. They’ve had some good results lately in their league so nothing will be taken for granted, I can tell you that.
“We played Dundee United in the previous round and they caused us a few issues and I expect Kilmarnock to be the same. We have identified a few strengths of theirs.
“Eva [Olid] is absolutely fantastic in terms of installing a mentality of not taking anything for granted - she’s really top notch at that.”
Despite finding themselves two goals down within the opening minutes of the 6-0 defeat to Rangers last Sunday, Burt believes his young side showed great heart to not let their heads go down.
“That’s the one thing about this team is they have great heart, they never want to give up no matter the opponent”, added Burt.
“It is a learning curve, they are so young and playing against a team of international players. It can only be a positive thing as long as we are learning and taking stuff from that then that's the positive of games like today.
“I’d say we created more in the first half against Rangers than we have done in the previous two fixtures against them.
“We gave soft goals away and ultimately when you are playing a team of professionals and you make the basic mistakes that we did, they are going to punish you.”
