Skacel denies Lennon's 'lowest of low' spitting allegation

Ewan Murray and Ronnie Esplin
Tuesday May 2, 2006

The Hearts midfielder Rudi Skacel has denied claims by Neil Lennon that he spat at the Celtic captain during Sunday's tempestuous Scottish Premierleague match at Tynecastle.

Lennon yesterday branded Skacel "the lowest of the low" after the incident in the 55th minute of Hearts' 3-0 win, with television pictures proving inconclusive as to whether or not the Czech midfielder did spit at the Celtic player.

"Skacel spat at me - no doubt about it," said Lennon. "He is a total disgrace. I've been involved in plenty of Old Firm games, heated matches, but never had to deal with anything like this."

A Hearts spokeswoman replied: "There doesn't appear to be any proof of these allegations on television pictures. Rudi strenuously denies any of the reported allegations made by Neil Lennon."

The Rangers manager Alex McLeish has insisted his players will only have themselves to blame if they fail to catch Hearts in the race for the second place in the SPL.

Hearts' progress to the Scottish Cup final means that the fourth-placed SPL team, currently Hibernian, will qualify for the Uefa Cup only if Rangers overturn a four-point deficit in the final two games to finish second.

Tonight Rangers meet Hibs at Easter Road and if they fail to win, Hearts are virtually ensured second place. "It is up to ourselves and we can only blame ourselves if we don't finish second," said McLeish."We have to make Hearts earn it."

Regardless of tonight's result, Hearts will have the chance to seal second place, prior to Sunday's trip to Ibrox, at home to Aberdeen tomorrow. The Hearts defender Robbie Neilson, meanwhile, has urged majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov to offer Paul Hartley a golden handcuffs deal to keep him at Tynecastle.

The in-form midfielder turned in another man-of-the-match performance in the win over Celtic. Hearts twice rejected offers from Celtic for the 29-year-old last year before the Scotland international signed a new three-year contract in August.

Neilson said: "Paul has been fantastic and has produced some great goals for us in very big matches which is the sign of a good player. I'm sure there will be people interested in him but we need to keep hold of our good players. We've kept hold of Craig Gordon, who is one of the best goalkeepers in Britain in my eyes, so hopefully we can keep Paul.

"The money situation has totally changed in recent years. A few years ago any kind of offer would have probably seen him leave because we were in lot of debt, but Mr Romanov has come in and he has been fantastic; he has put his money where his mouth is. Mr Romanov is producing the money to keep players and hopefully he can do that with Paul."

Shaun Maloney, who has written himself into the history books by being hailed as both the player and young player of the season by his peers, could now cap what he describes as the best campaign of his career by signing a new deal at Celtic. But the 23-year-old striker has revealed how he was on the verge of being forced to quit Parkhead instead.

A cruciate knee ligament injury sustained in an Under-21s match in February 2004 left Maloney having to learn to walk properly again and it would be nine months before he would make his comeback for the second team. Maloney was determined to make great strides in the first team again but feared he might not be given that opportunity under the new manager Gordon Strachan, who replaced Martin O'Neill last summer.

He considered a loan move in an attempt to secure top-level football but a phenomenal effort in pre-season was enough to convince Strachan he had a future and Maloney became a mainstay of the Celtic team.

Maloney admitted: "It could have been so different. After missing the whole of last year, I definitely wouldn't have wanted to go through another year of not playing football. I knew myself that I had to try to step up to the plate a little bit. I had to justify to myself and my fellow team-mates that I was good enough to be in the team. There have been a few of the senior players who have helped me through that."

Among them was John Hartson, and Maloney is thrilled his fellow striker will be seeing out the remaining year of his contract. Hartson had considered leaving Celtic this summer to return to his native Wales to be closer to his children, but he revealed last weekend that his plan was to stay at Parkhead.

Maloney said: "It's a big boost because I think there was some uncertainty within himself. I don't know his family situation but to have him back for next year is massive." Maloney has held talks about his own Celtic future, and added: "If all the circumstances are right, I would love to sign. I've enjoyed it so much this year and I've got a lot of time for the fans and the management so, if everything is right, then I would love to stay."

Taken from the Guardian/Observer