Levein fury at Balde’s challenge

HEARTS boss Craig Levein today claimed midfielder Thomas Flogel was lucky to escape serious injury after a challenge by Celtic’s Bobo Balde during his side’s 2-0 defeat at Parkhead.

The pair clashed after going for a 50-50 ball in the closing stages of last night’s SPL game, the powerful Frenchman appearing to launch a straight-leg tackle on the Austrian in front of the main stand.

Flogel was incensed at the challenge and an irate Levein was quick to voice his displeasure to referee Bobby Orr when no foul was given, the Jambos chief then earning a lecture from the official for his troubles.

"It was a bad tackle from Balde," said Levein.

"He went in with a straight leg and if he had connected he could have broken Thomas’ leg."

Levein was full of praise for his players despite the defeat and insisted there was not one failure in a maroon jersey last night.

"I was very pleased with our performance," he added. "Games don’t come any harder than that and I thought Celtic played well.

"But nobody let me down and we have go to try to keep that level of performance going. I know we have lost our last two games but give me losing two matches with the we played and I can accept that.

"The biggest thing about playing Celtic at Parkhead is not to give the ball away to them. Do that and they will punish you time and again.

"You have to keep possession of the ball and I thought we did that well at times, certainly better than in the past there.

"I asked a lot of Andy Webster to mark Larsson but I wouldn’t have done so if I didn’t think he could handle it. And for the majority of the game he did really well.

"Scott Severin was also outstanding against the physical presence of John Hartson while Antti Niemi again served us well.

"Considering he had been out for a month with few training sessions I was delighted with him, particularly his two saves in the first half.

"I left it up to him to decide if his finger was okay to play as he is experienced enough to know not to risk anything if there was any danger of the problem getting worse."

Levein has defender Alan Maybury available for Saturday’s Tennent’s Scottish Cup clash with Inverness Caley Thistle at Tynecastle after his suspension following his red card at Livingston, and while he will welcome a fresh pair of legs for the tie after the strength-sapping conditions in Glasgow, Levein is confident his players can cope with the demands.

"We have been working on our fitness and they guys showed over a busy schedule at Christmas time that they can handle games in quick succession.

"We weren’t expected to take anything from last night but we now face a Scottish Cup tie at home to Inverness Caley Thistle where the pressure is different.

"It is a different match completely for us but we have to maintain our form."

Taken from the Scotsman