Jefferies heaped praise on his team following their rampant win

Manager Jim Jefferies feels he has unified his Hearts squad over the past 12 months and believes it is now reaping dividends.

Hearts' 5-0 rout of Aberdeen was the Tynecastle side's fifth successive Scottish Premier League victory.

"They were much maligned at times for not pulling together," said Jefferies.

"But we've managed to get that into the club and they're a great bunch of boys to work with. We played a lot of great football and passed the ball well."

Goals from David Templeton, Rudi Skacel (two), Stephen Elliott and Arvydas Novikovas exposed Aberdeen's defensive deficiencies as Dons manager-in-waiting Craig Brown watched from the stand.

"Aberdeen were out to impress Craig," said Jefferies. "They showed plenty of commitment and effort, they were just worn down by a very good performance because we matched them.

"If you do that, it comes down to ability and I think we showed that we've got a lot more about us than Aberdeen at the present moment.

"It was an outstanding victory. A lot of the boys were on fire.

"Credit to the players. The confidence that's coming through, the togetherness, their work rate, the spirit about them is as good as the last spell I was here."

Jefferies was keen to praise some of the players who did not get on the score-sheet.

"What set up the game was the work-rate off the ball because we closed, we harried, we chased and what optimised that was the performance of Adrian Mrowiec, I thought he was outstanding in midfield," Jefferies told BBC Scotland.

"I know everyone will get the plaudits for creating chances and scoring goals but for me he was outstanding and I'm really pleased because he's a terrific professional to work with.

A big thank you to all the people who managed to get this game on today, it was a big task Jim Jefferies

"Templeton's on fire. He's got that wee bit of cutting edge, difficult to pick up, good quality on the ball. He was great.

"Stephen Elliott put a great shift in for the team and it was nice to see him get a goal as well.

"I thought Kevin Kyle was absolutely outstanding, particularly in the second half. I thought he had a great game.

"We've had five clean sheets, five victories (in a row). Somewhere down the line, we could play well and lose. Till that happens, we'll go out and give our all and if we keep playing like that, it's going to take a good performance or a lot of bad luck to beat us."

The game went ahead despite severe wintry weather earlier in the week damaging part of the Tynecastle ground, which needed to be repaired by the Hearts staff.

"A big thank you to all the people who managed to get this game on today, it was a big task," said Jefferies.

"It was a great effort from everybody and what we rewarded them with was a fantastic victory and a fantastic performance."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version