{"id":417432,"date":"2025-09-12T03:29:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/417432\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T03:29:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:29:39","slug":"craig-halkett-insists-hearts-will-block-out-title-talk-noise-as-defender-determined-to-end-wretched-rangers-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/417432\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Halkett insists Hearts will block out title talk noise as defender determined to end wretched Rangers record"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jambos sit joint-top of the Premiership table after the first four matchesCraig Halkett(Image: Mark Scates\/SNS Group)<\/p>\n

Craig Halkett insists Hearts<\/a> need to block out the noise surrounding them… and Rangers.<\/p>\n

With Derek McInnes<\/a>\u2019 new-look side sitting second in the table only on goal difference four games in, they will head to Ibrox on Saturday with good reason to feel positive.<\/p>\n

New investor Tony Bloom made it clear at the outset to the season he wants to bring back the title within 10 years.<\/p>\n

That raised expectations among Jambos, especially going into matchday five. And their hopes of a first win in 19 head-to-heads have been propped up by Rangers<\/a>\u2019 underwhelming start under Russell Martin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Halkett is adamant the squad are not getting carried away over a six-point gap already in their favour. The defender, in Gorgie a little over six years, said: \u201cBeing a Hearts player, you should be confident of going anywhere and trying to pick up three points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you add in the start we\u2019ve had, the size of the squad, the quality of the squad we\u2019ve got, there is a great confidence within the squad we can win anywhere we go.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we can\u2019t look at what\u2019s being said outside or what other teams are thinking about us. We\u2019re all football fans, we watch a lot of football and we know what Tony Bloom has done at his other clubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for us, we can\u2019t just sit back and expect because he\u2019s done it somewhere else that it\u2019s just going to automatically happen to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here a long time and it\u2019s probably the first time we\u2019ve started the season so well. There\u2019s a real buzz, a real confidence. We still need to go and perform and do the best we can every single week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t really think about it that much. We just think about what we can do every day, then go to the weekend and try to pick up points.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust looking at ourselves, we\u2019ve started the season well. I don\u2019t think, as players, we\u2019re looking too much into how Rangers have started, what their squad is looking like or how many goals they\u2019ve conceded.<\/p>\n

Alexandros Kyziridis celebrates his winning goal for Hearts against Livingston(Image: Stuart Wallace\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just about us going there as the Hearts team we know we are and trying to believe we can pick up a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearts\u2019 record up against Rangers is another factor in the Gorgie side not getting carried away. From those last 18 winless meetings in all competitions, 14 have been defeats.<\/p>\n

And the former Rangers trainee is desperate to start putting that right. He said: \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing in my time here when you think about how many times I\u2019ve been to Ibrox, or Rangers or Celtic have come here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably haven\u2019t picked up anywhere near the number of points we should have or could have. It is one where we want to go on Saturday and turn it back in our favour, start showing we can go to these places and compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe buzz around the place is good. It\u2019s a place where we can be confident we can go and give it our best shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

McInnes, named Premiership manager of the month for August, made 11 summer signings but will be without record recruit Ageu in Glasgow through injury.<\/p>\n

Claudio Braga plus Alexandros Kyziridis have shone, teeing up late drama for a draw with Motherwell and comeback win at Livingston.<\/p>\n

But Halkett knows Hearts need to stop giving themselves a mountain to climb.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s good to know you\u2019ve got players in the team who can do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut before that happens, we\u2019d like to not need to rely on these boys to come on and win the game for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jambos sit joint-top of the Premiership table after the first four matchesCraig Halkett(Image: Mark Scates\/SNS Group) Craig…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,143018,71562,1102,4884,47959,1946,28104,712,1638,92473,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-417432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-craig-halkett","10":"tag-derek-mcinnes","11":"tag-edinburgh","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-hearts-fc","14":"tag-rangers-fc","15":"tag-russell-martin","16":"tag-scotland","17":"tag-scottish-premiership","18":"tag-tony-bloom","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115189210888025992","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}