Levein faces up to loss of De Vries for another week

PAUL KIDDIE

HEARTS boss Craig Levein is facing up to the prospect of being without star striker Mark de Vries for the second week in succession with the Dutchman set to miss Sunday’s trip to Kilmarnock.

The giant front man was forced to sit out the 0-0 draw against Dunfermline at East End Park with a calf strain picked up against Livingston and Levein admitted the former Dordrecht forward is unlikely to have recovered in time for the trip to Ayrshire, the visit of Rangers to Tynecastle next weekend a more realistic target.

"Mark de Vries suffered a calf strain at Almondvale and these things tend to take two or three weeks to clear up," said Levein.

"I don’t expect him to make the Kilmarnock match and I’d say we are targeting the Rangers game as a more likely return date but we will have to wait and see how he progresses."

In the absence of the injured De Vries and Paul Hartley - who suffered a groin strain against Livingston - Levein partnered Andy Kirk and Dennis Wyness in attack against the Pars, with Kevin McKenna slotting in on the wide right of midfield.

With Hartley beginning a one-match suspension on Sunday and the versatile Australian Patrick Kisnorbo also banned, the Gorgie chief will be forced to tinker with his line-up once again.

Better news for the Hearts boss was that Phil Stamp, who has been toiling with a knee injury but was pressed into action against Dunfermline, came through the Pars encounter without any reaction and should be fine to face Killie.

Meanwhile, Levein and the Scottish Football Association reached an "amicable" agreement over his non-payment of a £1000 fine and subsequent touchline ban. Levein persistently refused to pay the fine for his comments about referee Dougie McDonald after the Premier League defeat at Kilmarnock ten months ago.

Levein had been angered by the match official, claiming he lost count of the number of mistakes he had made "after the 97th".

The SFA twice doubled the fine before, eventually, making his punishment a four-month touchline ban. But, in September, Levein won a suspension of the ban at the Court of Session in Edinburgh with his lawyer Neil Davidson QC arguing that the SFA had behaved "unlawfully" by first increasing his fine and then changing it to a touchline ban.

The lawyer also claimed Levein was being "stopped from carrying out his job" by the ban.

The legal wrangling looked set to be heading for further court action before the SFA reached agreement with Levein and Hearts.

Judge Lord MacFadyen said the SFA rule book did not make it clear that the SFA had the power to increase fines as he passed judgement last autumn. But the Tynecastle chief will now pay the original fine of £1000 and the matter will be dropped.

An SFA spokesman said: "The disciplinary dispute between the Scottish FA and Craig Levein has been resolved amicably through the intervention of Heart of Midlothian FC paying the original fine of £1000 imposed on Craig Levein. Craig Levein has apologised to the Scottish FA for making inappropriate comments to the press about the match referee.

"The Scottish FA has accepted that these comments were sparked as a result of Mr Levein’s belief that certain protocols at the match had not been properly followed. These protocols have now been clarified."

Taken from the Scotsman