Hearts star takes bubble bursting critics to task as he turns supporter for Rangers clash amid suspension
The Hearts star will miss the Rangers game but will still have his eyes fixed on the Gorgie cracker.
They only lost once during a difficult spell - and Harry Milne will take that with glee as talk of Hearts’ title bid derailing hits the buffers.
The Jambos host Rangers this Sunday, following on from big wins away at Celtic and Falkirk. Derek McInnes’ side headed to Parkhead with one win in six games, having drawn four of those matches, and emerged as 2-1 victors, before winning by a 2-0 margin in Grangemouth.
There was talk in some quarters of the maroon title bubble bursting but Milne is fine with such chatter, as Hearts’ only difficult spell of this term so far still had them pick up several Premiership points. Now top of the table by six, albeit with second-placed Celtic holding a couple games in hand, he reckons the Parkhead result has been backed up by a big win in blustery conditions at Falkirk.
Hearts ‘bubble burst’ chatter falls flat
He told the Evening News: “Everyone was talking about our kind of run that we went on and the thing was we were still picking up points within that run. It was difficult games, there's no easy games in the league. If that's our bad run or our bubble burst then we'll take that.
“Celtic was a perfect place for us to kind of get back to winning ways but it would have meant nothing unless we came here and you know got the three points as well. Obviously a very tough venue to come to and their fans well up for it, they're a really good footballing team and then you've obviously got to factor in the conditions as well. I think overall we handled it well especially in the second half. I thought we had total control.
“Obviously last season was well documented as being very poor by this club's standards but we recruited really well and the manager is included that. I think everything was in place at the start of the season for us to really go and make an impact in the league and yeah it’s such a good group of boys and everyone is working for the common goal. We won't look too far ahead, massive games coming up in the next couple of weeks alone anyway. We'll just kind of ride the wave while we can.”
Whether or not Milne made the Falkirk game was in question, as he dealt with a thigh issue. A couple of lung-bursting runs and slide on the goal line to deny Falkirk attacker Kyrell Wilson a certain leveller aided him in shaking off that niggle before it stiffened up in the second half. He said: ”It was a bit touch and go yeah.
Hearts star on shaking off injury problem
“I went in early Saturday to do a bit of testing and things like this. I'd been feeling it all week but it had kind of dotted about in different places so I knew it wasn't really anything too serious or anything like that. It was sore this morning so I did a bit of testing but it was all fine, so it was kind of up to me, so I thought we'd just go for it. I knew it was a late kick-off so I was kind of leaving it as late as possible on the Friday just to see if it settled down and things like this, doing my own kind of prehab to see if I could sort it out.
”Once you go in and do the testing with all the physios and it kind of looks all right, you've kind of gained a bit of confidence from that and you know it gives you that boost. The point I came off was the only point that I actually felt it. Once you get that adrenaline going and get into the game and start testing it out with a couple of big lung buster runs, yeah it felt fine after that so yeah I'm happy. The first thought of the defender in that scenario was obviously get back on the line and try and stop it with anything you can and keep your hands out of the way which thankfully I did.”
There is now a level of frustration for Milne, as he is suspended for the Rangers game due to an accumulation of bookings. He might not agree with every yellow, but his combative style leaves him running the risk of referee warnings, as Milne gets ready to turn supporter against the Light Blues.
He added: “You never want to miss a game but yeah obviously it's my own fault, there might be a couple of bookings I don't quite agree with! I think the accumulation of the way that I play is quite an aggressive way and kind of full throttle so yeah it's a combination of that so it's obviously disappointing. I'll be there front and centre supporting the boys.”