Coach says Heart can improve

Heart travels north to take on Sydney FC on Thursday with second place on the ladder up for grabs for the winner, and confident it's ready to back up after the emotional 3-2 win over Melbourne Victory in last week's big derby clash.



After failing to win in its first five matches, Heart has turned things around in remarkable style with six wins in its past seven matches.



Coach John van `t Schip expects to use an unchanged squad for the Sydney game although Matt Thompson - the two-goal hero in the win over the Victory - missed training on Tuesday as a precautionary measure with a cold.



Van `t Schip said hard work had been a key factor in his team's transformation.



"There is still a lot of improvement to be done and that's the good thing about this team," van 't Schip said.



"There are a lot of young players and we still have a lot of growth inside."



The coach wasn't worried his team could be a bit flat after the big build-up and win over Victory.



"Every game is is going to be the same," he said. "We had (the win over premiers) Brisbane and there was the same story - how are you going to back up?



"Well we backed up well. After Perth it was the same and then we did well against Victory.



"Of course there's going to be a game when we're not going to have a good result ... hopefully we can make sure it's not going to be Thursday."



Van `t Schip said that Heart would always be aggressive and shrugged off suggestions its defence might be lacking at times.



"We always go out to win a game and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't," he said.



"But it's not in my nature to go somewhere and say let's try to play a draw.



"Of course if at the end the game means you are happy to concede a draw, okay you are happy to do that, but beforehand we always want to win.



"If we go one-nil up and we're playing well we'll go for the second goal."