Tony carpets shamed star

DEREK RIORDAN will be ordered to apologise personally and can expect to be fined for his alleged foul-mouthed chant about Hearts midfielder Rudi Skacel.

Hibs manager Tony Mowbray was this morning eagerly awaiting Riordan's arrival for training at Easter Road to demand an explanation for reports of the player singing "Rudi Skacel is a f****** refugee" amongst supporters in the aftermath of last month's derby victory over Hearts.

Mowbray, who tried unsuccessfully to speak to Riordan last night about the incident, will discipline his striker privately and tell him to apologise to Skacel for the chant, video footage of which was captured and circulated on mobile phones amongst supporters.

"He will apologise and we will move on. He is a young man who is learning lessons in life as you all know," said the Hibs manager.

"I have attempted to speak to him and didn't manage to but I will catch him today because he is in for training. I'm sure you can appreciate the context of the situation. We will do the right thing, that's the best thing to say." When asked if that would involve a reprimand for 22-year-old Riordan, Mowbray replied: "Again, that's probably not for public consumption. I will deal with it as I see fit and leave it at that.

"I don't really want to go into it any further because there is no story for me and there are no messages from me.

"All I'm interested in is seeing my team performing well at the weekend."

Mowbray did not dismiss the suggestion that he may drop Riordan for Sunday's SPL meeting with Rangers. However, the Englishman stated that any demotion would only be for football reasons.

"There is no message from me to Derek. I'm focusing on my team for the weekend and if Derek is in that team he knows how he has to play and what we expect of him.

"I will pick my team on Saturday morning as I do every week once I know the injuries and who is definitely available.

"Derek won't be dropped for any disciplinary reasons. If he plays, he plays because his footballing ability merits it. If he is not in the team it will be purely a football-related decision."

Hibs go in to Sunday's encounter with the almost unprecedented opportunity to move 11 points clear of Rangers, victory permitting.

"It's not something I've given a great deal of thought to because I'm only concerned with winning as many game as we can throughout the course of the season," said Mowbray.

"What I would say is that if we were to be offered 31 points after 15 games we would probably have taken it at the start of the season.

"Where that leaves everybody else doesn't really matter to me. I am trying to progress our football club and pick up as many points as we can. I can't affect other clubs until the day we play them, and hopefully we can have an impact on Sunday."

Taken from the Scotsman