Source: FOOTYMAD
Heart Felt Sympathy
Not many sides could have coped with Spurs on the form they showed on Thursday say Kenny Shiels Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels has a lot of sympathy for Hearst after they suffered against Spurs in their Europa League play-off first-leg tie at Tynecastle. The 5-0 result will have hurt but Sheils says the players should quickly move on and forget their midweek thrashing, which effectively rendered next week's return game meaningless. Hearts travel to Rugby Park on Sunday and Shiels, who is not about to feel sorry for the opposition come kick-off time, was not surprised by the result and claimed even the Old Firm would have struggled against the big-spending English Premier League side. Shiels said: "Tottenham are an elite Premier League team, not a Premier League team. The top six teams are well ahead of us and the rest are better than us because of the financial clout that they have. So I wouldn't get too deflated if I was a Hearts supporter because it's what you expect. It's understandable that Spurs could come and be better than Hearts. I think Spurs would come and be better than the Old Firm as well because I don't think there is a level playing field. Spurs are so much superior to any team in Scotland but it is the same in every other country. I defy anyone to say that Spurs couldn't do that in most other nations. The team they had out had pace, strength and power so we have to be very careful how we reflect on that." The Irishman thinks there has been a knee-jerk reaction in the wake of Scottish teams travails in their respective Europa League play-offs. Rangers lost 2-1 away to NK Maribor while Celtic were held to a goalless draw at home to Swiss side Sion. Shiels went on: "One thing I have found in Scotland is that if something happens it seems to be highlighted to the extreme. We are the same, we got a victory last Sunday against Hibs so everyone thinks Kilmarnock are going to have a great season. Hearts got beat and people are captured by the negatives and want to highlight that." Shiels revealed that new signing Leon Panikvar is not quite ready to be included in his squad for Sunday but is looking for the Slovenian to make a big contribution this season. He said: "We feel he has the European experience and fits in to our system and fits in to our budget." Panikvar, who impressed in a trial game against Sunderland, is looking forward to working with Shiels. He said: "Everybody says it is a long-ball game in Scotland but in this team nobody plays that, we play beautiful football. I like this better than long-ball football."
