Hearts get the message as ref misses the point

DAVID HARDIE AT MURRAYFIELD

HEARTS star Alan Maybury today revealed how Craig Levein sent his former side a good luck message ahead of their crunch UEFA Cup clash with German aces Schalke 04.

The ex-Jambos boss was at Murrayfield along with his assistant Peter Houston to watch Hearts legend John Robertson take charge of the Gorgie club for the first time.

And although neither Levein or Houston, now with English Championship outfit Leicester City, went near the home dressing-room, they passed on their good wishes via Robertson.

But like Robertson and his players, Levein and Houston suffered a night of frustration as ropey Russian referee Nikolai Ivanov proved whistle happy, awarding an astonishing 49 fouls in the 90 minutes - 32 of them against Hearts. The Capital side’s misery was compounded only a couple of minutes after half-time when Australian midfielder Patrick Kisnorbo was sent off, leaving Brazilian star Lincoln to claim the only goal of the game, consigning Hearts to a second successive defeat in their group to leave their hopes of making further progress hanging by a thread. Today, Republic of Ireland star Maybury admitted the over-riding emotion was one of frustration caused, in the main, by Ivanov who also booked Hearts Robbie Neilson and Paul Hartley.

He said: "We felt we weren’t given a chance to try and win the game. We accept there are maybe certain challenges, like Robbie’s, which you get away with in the SPL.

"It’s a contact sport but in Europe if you put your hands on someone, even just trying to feel where they are, the whistle goes."

As in Rotterdam where Danish Tonny Paulsen left Hearts fuming over two crucial offside decisions, Maybury felt Hearts had suffered rough justice at the hands of Ivanov, accusing referees of favouring Europe’s bigger clubs.

He said: "It’s like someone said in the dressing-room, we seem to be being treated as if we are "little Hearts of Scotland" while they are the big teams and they get the results.

"You could perhaps accept it against Feyenoord when we were the away team but we got nothing again last night. It’s frustrating, all you ask is that you are allowed to play your own game."

Maybury agreed Kisnorbo’s red card had a massive influence on the outcome, the match delicately balanced at 0-0 when the Aussie went down in the Schalke penalty box, adamant contact had been made with an opposing player.

But Ivanov, who had booked Kisnorbo for dissent early in the first half, thought otherwise and thus Hearts were left to play for more than 40 minutes against a side sitting in second place in the German Bundesliga a man short.

Maybury said: "We felt confident enough at half-time. We’d restricted them to maybe a couple of long-range shots. They were coming into it towards the end of the half but we felt comfortable.

"At the start of the second half we were trying to keep doing what we had been doing, keeping it tight and looking to see if we could pick them off.

"But straight away we were a man down and that left them in a comfortable position. It changed the game and it was obvious they were going to get the ball wide.

"They whipped in some good balls, hit the woodwork a couple of times but I don’t think Craig Gordon had too many saves to make before their guy scored a great goal and we ended up with no points again."

The departure of Levein and the arrival of Robertson provided a strange backdrop to the match, but Maybury insisted the outcome had nothing to do with the change in management at Hearts.

He said: "It had been a hectic few days, Craig leaving on Friday, Peter in charge on Saturday, both gone on Monday, John McGlynn trying to keep things going and then John Robertson coming in."

Although youth coach McGlynn was charged with much of the preparatory work for the game, Robertson spoke to his players and passed on the best wishes of Levein and Houston whom he had met before kick-off.

Maybury said: "We didn’t see Craig or Peter but John told us they had wished us good luck.

"They had told him we were an honest, hard-working bunch of boys and to make sure we kept doing what we had been doing because that was what had got us this far."

Taken from the Scotsman