Hearts’ Jamie Hamill ‘can handle the criticism’

Colleen Strachan

DYLAN MCGOWAN today backed Jamie Hamill to shrug off the criticism that he has taken following Hearts’ League Cup win over Raith Rovers.

Tynecastle defender Hamill came in for stick from the Rovers fans following a clash for which Dougie Hill was red carded for an alleged head-butt on Tuesday night.

The Stark’s Park side plan on appealing the defender’s sending off and the player himself took to Twitter to fire insults at his opposite number after the match, although he later removed some of his comments.

But McGowan believes that the abuse will have been like water off of a duck’s back in any case. McGowan said: “Any player who is in trouble always has our support. We are a really close-knit team here.

“From Hamill’s point of view, I thought he handled the stick he got at Raith really well. He is an experienced player and took his penalty really well.

“He scored another in the shoot-out and it was clear the abuse did not affect him. And I don’t think what anyone says on Twitter will affect him in the future.

“Jamie is one of those players who gets under people’s skin, gets in their faces and he does a fantastic job for us. Hopefully that will continue in Inverness.

“You can’t react to what people say on Twitter – and I think Jamie has had more stick than most on there. We all get it – you can’t log on to Twitter after a game without getting told you are the worst player in the world! So you learn to take everything with a pinch of salt. You need to do that. Jamie hasn’t even mentioned it.”

Meanwhile, McGowan’s side were yesterday drawn at home to Queen of the South in the third round of the League Cup and the Hearts player is delighted to have been handed a tie at Tynecastle.

He continued: “It is great to get a home game. The fans have been brilliant this season and we have proved how important that is in the last couple of home games by doing really well.

“Hopefully that can continue against Queen of the South. We played them in pre-season, drawing 0-0, and they probably had the better of it, so we know we will have to be on our game and put on a good performance to get through. Financially, we will take whatever we can get! Cup runs, sell-out crowds, anything will do.”

Taken from the Scotsman