Proud Paulo Sergio was absolutely ecstatic with his team after today's dramatic comeback victory over St Mirren in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Goals from Marius Zaliukas and John Sutton sandwiched an incredible hat-trick from Rudi Skacel as the Jambos recorded an astonishing 5-2 victory, made all the more remarkable by the fact that Hearts played for over 86 minutes with 10 men.

Paulo said: "I just want to say how proud I am of my team. To play this way against, in my opinion, one of the better football teams in the league is excellent. After 10 minutes we had to change strategy and throw away our entire week's work in training and I am so proud of the team for how they reacted."

Rudi Skacel's explosive performance will have all the pundits and punters wagging their tongues in delighted, but while Paulo was thrilled with the mercurial Czech's display he was keen to point out that the team performance was just as important.

Paulo added: "We have to talk about Rudi's goals, yes, but I want to talk about the team. It was the work of the team that allowed Rudi the chance to get three goals. Also, Rudi's work defensively allowed him to stay in good condition to make the chances. He has fantastic capacity to score goals but I am more proud of his work off the ball, fighting together with his team, as they all stayed as a team and a unit. The players deserve all the credit today."

On the subject of Rudi's expiring contract and speculation regarding a number of players leaving in the transfer window, Paulo offered these thoughts: "I've seen nothing from Rudi that says he wants to go, and that he will be going. I read in the papers about things like Crawley and Rudi leaving, but I know he wants to stay. I am happy to keep him and have him here. I don't get the idea where our players are on sale is from. Maybe it's true! However, there are different sales. Our players are not in a 50% sale. We are not giving anyone else away."

Finally, although Paulo confirmed that he expected all salaries to be paid on time on Monday, he was now beginning to get angry about the continued ignorance of Hearts' fine form to focus on negative aspects. The Portuguese said: "After big wins that we've had in the last six weeks, we talk nothing about the players. We talk about wage problems, and players leaving and nothing about our wins. We go to Easter Road and we dominate Hibs and it's only talk of money.

"Today, we play 85 minutes with only ten men, and we score five goals. I don't want to talk any more about negatives, and wages, and problems. I only want to focus on the quality of my fantastic players."