Lennon stands by spitting claim

Lennon accused Skacel of spitting at him in Heart of Midlothian’s 3-0 defeat of Celtic in the Bank of Scotland Premierleague. Yesterday, the Hearts player denied this through a club statement but Lennon’s own public statement on the issue seems certain to have the matter investigated by the SFA’s video review panel.

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The SFA will not receive the report of the match referee, Alan Freeland, until today but Lennon is vehement about the veracity of his interpretation of the incident. The Celtic captain labelled Skacel as“a disgrace”. Hearts responded with a statement saying that television footage did not prove Lennon’s claim and that Skacel found the accusation “offensive.”

“Skacel spat at me, no doubt about it,” Lennon was quoted as saying. “I was walking away and it flew past my shoulder. I understand the television pictures did not catch it but there were other cameras at the ground that might have caught it. However, he definitely spat at me and that is why I turned around and reacted the way I did.

“He is a total disgrace and it is not the first time he has done it since he moved to Scotland. I have been involved in plenty of Old Firm games, heated matches, but never had to deal with anything like this. This guy is the lowest of the low.”

Skacel had to answer another similar accusation when Stuart Duff, of Dundee United, accused the Czech Republic midfield player of spitting at him in a match with Hearts on February 4. “There doesn’t appear to be any proof of these allegations on television pictures,” a Hearts spokesman said. “As for Rudi himself, he is very angry and strenuously denies that he spat at Neil Lennon. Rudi finds the comments attributed to him extremely offensive.”

Lennon was booked by Freeland for his reaction to the 55th minute exchange, pushing the Hearts player to the ground. Skacel was then booked later on for cutting Lennon down from behind. Gordon Strachan, the Celtic manager, then substituted Lennon.

“I took Neil off because I didn’t want to take any chances with him,” Strachan said. “It wasn’t so much Neil but there may have been people round about him who were trying to take advantage. I didn’t want to put him through that.”

Skacel played down the incident. “Maybe he [Lennon] was a little bit angry because it was 3-0, and that can happen in football,” he was quoted as saying. “But I don’t have a problem. To me, it doesn’t matter.”

Lennon felt differently. “That’s funny, because the scoreline at the time was still 2-0 and that had nothing to do with what happened,” Lennon said.

“I went in and won the ball, the television pictures clearly show me moving up the park as Skacel is getting up from the ground and then I turn around and confront him after the spit has flown over my shoulder.

“That is the truth and if he says anything different, then he is a liar. I don’t mind going on record and saying so, because that is what happened.“

Speculation that Skacel is about sign a contract to stay at Hearts once his year’s loan from Marseilles is over, appears to be premature. However, Hearts continue to insist that the Czech will not decide his future until the end of the season.

Skacel and his agent held discussions with Hearts representatives over the weekend and further talks are planned but the player’s presence at Tynecastle next season is still uncertain. He was waiting until the club secured a place in the Champions League before giving a commitment but that is now almost assured after the defeat of Celtic.

Hearts require only a win over Aberdeen at home tomorrow to seal second place, though it could come quicker if Rangers fail to win away to Hibernian tonight.

Valdas Ivanauskas, the interim head coach, said: “I think the performance was our best of the season and the players were very concentrated. We learned a lot from the mistakes we made against Celtic on New Year’s Day. I was pleased with our discipline and the energy levels we showed. Wednesday is now a very important game and we are only one step away from the Champions League place.”

Robbie Neilson, the Hearts defender, has urged majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov to offer Paul Hartley a golden handcuffs deal to keep him at Tynecastle.

The in-form midfield player turned in another man-of-match performance in the win over Celtic and his form is sure to have caught the attention of other clubs.

However, Neilson is hoping Romanov will do all he can to keep the player in Edinburgh. “Paul has been fantastic and has produced some great goals for us in very big matches which is the sign of a good player,” Neilsen said.

“Mr Romanov is producing the money to keep players and hopefully he can do that with Paul.”

Taken from timesonline.co.uk