HEARTS midfield man Colin Cameron believes that his club's relegation battle against Dunfermline Athletic on Monday is a bigger game for them than last season's cup final.
He made his comments as he picked up the Bank of Scotland SPL player of the month award while St Johnstone's Sandy Clark was named manager of the month.
Playing against Germany in Bremen in midweek capped an amazing comeback by Cameron, whose re-emergence is one of the success stories of the season. Over the last four weeks, the midfielder has finally managed to shake off a pelvic injury that kept him out of action for the first eight months of the season and he was given the honour of being named Hearts captain in their last game against Motherwell.
Despite only playing for the final six minutes as a substitute for Scotland, Cameron said: ''I could only have dreamt what has happened to me over the last few weeks. Even six weeks ago I could only dream of just playing football.''
However, despite his personal success, Cameron's priority was beating relegation. Hearts are currently four points above bottom club Dunfermline and a win for the Tynecastle outfit with only three games left to go after that would all but consign the Fife side to the first division.
''This is the biggest game in a lot of years for Hearts and that includes the cup final.'' said Cameron. ''It's probably bigger than that because of the meaning to the club. Okay, you lose in the cup final but you're still in the Premier League, but if you lose in the league you'll be relegated to the first division.''
He stressed that Hearts were desperate not to suffer the same fate as Hibernian. With their city rivals poised for a quick return from the first division, Cameron said the Tynecastle club were desperate to rekindle the Capital derbies and he was confident the sides would be meeting again in the Premier League next season.
His time in Bremen had also given him a greater appetite to be involved with Scotland again.
qRANGERS midfield man Giovanni van Bronckhorst's chances of a more regular place in the Dutch national side received a boost when coach Frank Rijkaard named him as one of the few successes in Holland's disappointing 2-1 defeat at home by Morocco on Tuesday.
qONE-time Rangers target Marcelino, the Real Mallorca central defender, last night signed to Newcastle United in a #4m deal.
qCELTIC drew first blood in a vital Old Firm week when their Under-21 side beat Rangers 3-1 at Barrowfield yesterday, when #2.4m striker Tommy Johnson playing the full 90 minutes as he returns from injury.
qFalkirk last night clinched the Professional Youth Under-18 League when they beat Partick Thistle 3-0.
Yesterday's results
Reserve League West
Hamilton Academical (Clark) 1, Ayr United (Bradford) 1.
Premier Youth League
Celtic 3, Rangers 1.
professional youth league
Partick Thistle 0, Falkirk 3.
Nationwide Football League. Division Two
Northampton Town 3, Wigan Athletic 3.
Today's fixtures
Under-14 International - Scotland v Republic of Ireland (Linlithgow Rose FC, 7pm).
Nationwide Football League Division One - Bolton Wanderers v Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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