Pressley backs Houston for post

Pressley knows the result against Celtic was poor

Hearts defender Steven Pressley has put his weight behind caretaker manager Peter Houston as the club board searches for a successor to Jim Jefferies.

A number of high-profile names have been touted for the job, among them those of Joe Kinnear, Steve Bruce and Stuart Baxter.

But Pressley insists Houston has the backing of the players after two wins out of three under his care.

Houston has stressed that he wants to stay with the club, whether or not he is offered the job of first-team coach.

Peter Houston is keen to stay at Hearts

"I really do want Peter Houston and the boys are 100% behind Peter," said Pressley.

"We won at St Mirren. We had a disappointing result last week, but we have come back and won two of the three that Peter has been in charge.

"He's obviously not had long enough to get all the things across that he wants to do, but I'm sure that given time he could be the right man for the job.

"Peter's a very well qualified coach and has all his SFA badges, and has now been awarded his European badge, so he's certainly very well qualified.

"I think the players certainly respect Peter. He has worked closely with the first team over the last couple of years and we are certainly behind him at the moment."

Two out of three

Hearts saw off the challenge of Dundee on Saturday and in Houston's first game in charge they disposed of St Mirren.

Last Saturday's 6-1 defeat by Celtic was a low point, but Pressley believes Houston has what it takes to take charge on a permanent basis.

"Obviously managers are judged by the results, but that's two wins out of three and probably we weren't expected to get anything at Celtic Park, so he's come in and shown he is capable of taking the job.

"He handles the players very well and works on the way we are going to play each week, and I think out there on the pitch yesterday you saw the response."

Pressley says the players are behind Houston

Pressley remains confident that Hearts can go on climbing the league whoever takes over.

"I think if you look at the players that are here there are a lot of international players," he added.

"We've got Thomas Flogel, Colin Cameron, Robert Tomaschek, Gordon Petric and I could go on listing them.

"We had a lot of injuries in the early part of the season, but the players are beginning to come back now. I think for anybody that gets the job we have the quality here."