Skipper Christophe Berra last night praised his team-mates for an improvement in work-rate over the last two months since Stephen Frail took charge of Hearts.

Speaking after Saturday's victory over Dundee United at Tynecastle, the captain admitted he had been disappointed not to get a first cap against Croatia last week, but that he used it as a motivation to lead Hearts to a vital win.

"I was disappointed I did not get on but hopefully there will other chances for me in the future," he said.

"I came out yesterday and put in a good performance and that is how you react to disappointment in football.

"We've not set the house on fire in a lot of games at Tynecastle but we went out there and put in a professional job in.

"You can see since Shaggy took over that we've only lost to Rangers and Celtic and that's all credit to Shaggy for the training he's put in place and the things we work on.

"I think because we are working together as a team and fighting together that it makes your job an awful lot easier.

"We got 1-0 and worked for a clean sheet. Previous months before we might have conceded goals and the fans might have got on our backs.

"We are working as a team so if somebody makes a bad pass there is someone else to help you out of it and fight for the ball back."

Christophe knows that even victory at Kilmarnock next week might not be enough to make the top six, but that's a reality he's come to terms with.

"It is down to Falkirk but hopefully next week if we can win against Kilmarnock then Aberdeen can do us a favour," he said.

On Hearts.TV today - Listen to post-match reaction from today's game with Stephen Frail and Robbie Neilson and watch broadband TV highlights of the win over Dundee United later!

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