Levein hit by McKenna

PAUL KIDDIE

HEARTS boss Craig Levein has been dealt a fresh suspension headache with the news that Kevin McKenna is set to miss the last game of the season against Dundee after his caution against Celtic at the weekend.

Like the rest of his team-mates, the Canadian was left raging after referee Mike McCurry awarded the home side a 28th-minute penalty after Chris Sutton went down in the box under pressure from Steven Pressley.

After Alan Thompson had stepped up to beat Tepi Moilanen from the spot for what proved to be the eventual winner, McKenna gave the official an earful and was promptly booked for his trouble.

The 23-year-old, who was employed as an emergency striker on Saturday alongside Graham Weir as the Gorgie outfit made the champions battle all the way for the victory, has now gone through the disciplinary points threshold and is set to be hit by a one-match ban which will come into force when Dundee visit Tynecastle on Sunday, May 25.

Depending on results this weekend it is a game which the Jambos, currently four points ahead of Euro rivals Kilmarnock, may still have to win to guarantee their place in the UEFA Cup next season. The Rugby Park side head to Dunfermline on Saturday while 24 hours later Hearts play host to Rangers.

McKenna is available for the weekend but will now join Phil Stamp, who is suspended for the last two matches, on the sidelines when Jim Duffy brings his players to the Capital.

"It is disappointing that we will now be without Kevin McKenna for the Dundee game," said Levein. "But these things catch up with you over the course of the season and we don’t have a big squad here.

"We will just have to get on with things as we have done in the past."

The Gorgie boss, meanwhile, was full of praise for the performance his players put up at Parkhead.

"I thought the guys did well and throughout the team everybody did their job. But on the day it was possibly just not quite good enough to get a point.

"But it is a learning curve for me as well as the players. We had some young players out there on Saturday with the likes of Graham Weir, who can still play in our under-18 team, Stephen Simmons and Neil Janczyk who I thought did well after coming on for Phil Stamp at half-time."

Stamp injured his groin in the first minute and it’s unlikely he’d have been fit for the last two games in any case.

Taken from the Scotsman