GARY LOCKE has told his young Hearts side they will be facing one of the top midfielders in Britain when they line up against Celtic captain Scott Brown tomorrow.
Brown will arrive at Tynecastle fresh from two stand-out performances captaining Scotland in their World Cup qualifiers against Belgium and Macedonia.
The 28-year-old, along with his Parkhead team-mate Charlie Mulgrew, fought in vain to keep Belgium at bay in Friday's 2-0 defeat at Hampden and were inspirational in Tuesday's 2-1 triumph against Macedonia. Locke also insisted the former Hibs player proved in last month's 3-2 defeat to England at Wembley that he can be ranked with the best to play on these shores.
Frank Lampard hailed Brown as "very impressive" in a performance that "stood out" against the Auld Enemy, and Locke knows from having played against the combative midfielder that his side will be facing a formidable opponent in peak form tomorrow.
"Scott Brown has had a few injury problems but he's one of the best players in Britain," he said. "When you look at the England game, up against the quality of players he was up against, I thought he ran the show. I think he's a fantastic player. I played against him when he was younger, but now you can see, going into games injury-free, he's a top player and certainly someone that we'll need to be wary of."
"We know how difficult it's going to be. But I'm going to try and prepare Hearts as well as we can and if we can play as well as we have done against Hibs and Aberdeen at Tynecastle we'll give ourselves a chance."
So far this season, Hearts have shown they are not going to easily blemish a proud home record, with the siege mentality fostered by their descent into administration and the subsequent 15-point penalty already having helped them to wins over Hibernian and Aberdeen.
Locke, though, is ready to acknowledge his inexperienced squad faces its toughest challenge yet, even if secretly he may be hoping Celtic are distracted ahead of Wednesday's trip to the San Siro to face AC Milan in the Champions League.
"We're going into the game to try and win it," he said, with admirable confidence. "We know how difficult it's going to be, because we're up against the champions and a team full of international stars, but we're going into the game fully confident and looking forward to it."
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