Hearts have plenty to play for this term '“ Craig Levein

Craig Levein insists Hearts have plenty to play for in the final five games of the Ladbrokes Premiership.

Their top-six campaign begins with a third visit of the season to Ibrox to face Rangers this Sunday, and manager Levein insists his squad should be fully motivated.

Hearts sit sixth in the league and realistically can only hope to usurp Kilmarnock to finish fifth at best. They face trips to Rangers, Aberdeen and Killie during their final five fixtures at the end of a difficult and exhausting campaign.

Levein is adamant his team must finish strongly despite problems brought by changing manager last August, playing home games at Murrayfield until November and coping with relentless injury troubles all year.

Craig Levein wants more wins to boost Hearts' morale

“People say there’s nothing to play for. After the season we’ve had, we want to try and finish on a high with as many good performances and as many points as we can,” he told the Evening News.

“I don’t think you can ever discount how important winning is for everybody’s morale. We will try to win all the games if we can between now and the end of the season. They are five massive games. If we’re very fortunate, we could maybe jump a league place but that won’t be easy. Our intention is to try and win games to give us a chance of doing that.

“Our last game against Aberdeen was a game where we had nothing to play for because we were already in the top six. However, there were over 18,000 people at the match so it’s a big thing for our supporters. We want to make them go home feeling good the same as we are.”