Death threat for Anderton after Robertson departure

HEARTS chief executive Phil Anderton has revealed he received a death threat after being linked with a move for Yeovil manager Gary Johnson before the departure of head coach John Robertson. The Tynecastle legend left the club last week after refusing to take an assistant role to another coach.

Anderton told BBC Scotland: "People have been accusing this club of acting dishonestly and unprofessionally, but I would have to ask some of the guys in the media who had me meeting Gary Johnson.

"It is good that I know the guy now because I had certainly never heard of him before.

I had the manager asking who this guy was. I also received a death threat off the back of it from a Hearts fan because I was meeting Gary Johnson and I was a ‘yes-man’ and all the rest of it."

In the tense atmosphere following the departure of Robertson, Chris Robinson, the former chief executive of Hearts, was nowhere to be seen at Tynecastle yesterday.

Meanwhile, Martin O’Neill has given robust backing to referee Willie Young’s decision not to award Hearts a last-minute penalty at Tynecastle yesterday even though he admitted his heart was in his mouth when he saw Steven Pressley go down under Craig Beattie’s challenge.

The incident threatened to rival another significant penalty controversy at Tynecastle, one which also impacted heavily on the championship run-in. Pressley had already been booked and the yellow card which was shown after Young interpreted the fall as a dive meant the skipper had to walk.

O’Neill admitted it might have gone either way, the Celtic manager himself making reference to the incident at Tynecastle in February when linesman Andy Davis raised his flag to signal an injury-time penalty after an innocuous back-post challenge by Lee Miller on Rangers defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos.

"It wasn’t a penalty, simple as that," O’Neill said. "But it wasn’t a penalty a couple of months ago here, and that was given. There are always pivotal moments in a championship race. We have another pivotal 90 minutes next Sunday."

Taken from the Scotsman