CHRISTOPHE Berra cannot wait to get started at Hearts. This is good news, because he doesn't have to. The Scotland central defender checks in at Riccarton this morning - just five days after effectively signing off last season with that sterling defensive effort for the national team against England at Hampden. The wrong side of 30 or not, Berra hopes his form against the world class strikers the Auld Enemy has to offer is perfect preparation for a return to the Scottish top flight for the first time in eight years. He will be expected to play a captain's part for Ian Cathro back on his old stomping ground, having inherited the armband from American midfielder Perry Kitchen and plans to lead by example.

“It’s a big responsibility for me on and off the pitch," said Berra. "Hearts are a massive club in Edinburgh, you walk around the streets and there are always Hearts fans – and Hibs fans giving you abuse. You can’t beat it! I’m really looking forward to it and I can’t wait to get started.

"I’m sure I could have had a couple more days off if I wanted to but I’m going back there as captain and I want to set the right example," he added. "I want to go in there and see the lads and get on with it. I feel that’s important, I don’t want to go in a week later. I want to do the hard work with them on the training pitch.

“A lot of boys who played against England had played two weeks before, " said Berra. "But I hadn’t played [for Ipswich] for four or five weeks. So I’m looking forward to going in and I can’t wait. Hopefully the way I played against England gives me the confidence to go back there and hold my head up high, and then keep on performing week in, week out."

Hearts kick off their campaign in little more than a month's time with a low key BetFred Cup outing against Elgin City in a group also features a live TV match up with Dunfermline Athletic. Ian Cathro has his troubles this pre-season - with highly prized players such as Callum Paterson and Sam Nicholson departing and now perhaps Jamie Walker likely to join then - but Berra, an unused substitute as the Tynecastle side took the Scottish Cup in 2006, would dearly love to mark his return to the Scottish game with some silverware.

“It [the BetFred Cup] will be a strange one because it will be like pre-season as well," said Berra. “But we’ll want to win those games because it’s a cup, we want to get to semi-finals and finals, that’s the reason I came back to Hearts, to get that far. With the right application with the right coaching, boys working hard and support from the club I think we’ve got a chance.

"Cup games are one-offs. Look at last week – England on paper are a lot better than us, let’s be honest, and we more than matched them. So it’s something that a club the size of Hearts with the support we have got and the good management and good owner, we should be aiming for. If he gets the backing of the players hopefully we can get Tynecastle back to what it should be, a fortress with the new stand getting built. But first and foremost we have got to get back to winning ways."

Berra is still finding those last hectic few minutes as hard as anyone to come to terms with. But the over-riding emotions are positivity and pride. “I was going mad when Griff scored his second goal," he said. "Then you just feel down and out. Imagine if we had won, the changing room would have been absolutely bouncing. We have got to pick ourselves up, it’s the reason we play football, in professional sport you have got to be hard skinned and get on with it.

"We still have to be proud of ourselves, we more than matched them. I know they had the bulk of possession at times but they are a top team and sometimes you have to surrender that. But we put tackles in, we had chances and maybe in some situations we could have slipped someone in or got a better shot off. We limited them to very few chances as well. We’d have taken a point before the game.

“Obviously we are not going to be automatic qualifiers now; it’s going to have to be the play-offs. But it’s still all to play for. We have our winnable games against teams who, on paper, we are just as good as, if not better. And if we show the application we did against England, we have got a chance. We never do it easy, do we?"