Hearts’ pre-season tour of Austria got off to an explosive start with a bad-tempered match against FC Tavriya of Ukraine.
A Tynecastle XI featuring latest signing Michael Stewart eventually succumbed 2-1 to the Ukrainians, but the result would appear to have been merely incidental in comparison to the antics of certain individuals.
It all apparently kicked off when referee Norbet Schwab awarded a dodgy penalty to Tavriya in the second half. Hearts’ reserve goalkeeper Eduardas Kursis (deputising for the injured Craig Gordon) was so incensed by the decision that he confronted Schwab and grabbed him around the neck!
Then later on in the match, Mirsad Beslija (good to see him back playing incidentally) went right through an opponent and as Schwab showed the Bosnian the yellow card, it became clear to him that Beslija was still wearing some jewellery. Schwab therefore asked for this to be removed, at which point Beslija apparently lost the plot completely! In the end the poor old ref had to tell the Hearts bench to sub him before he was sent off!
It sounds like quite a start to the pre-season tour, but it’s actually quite good to hear that the Hearts players are at least showing some passion out there. This is something that our side has been accused of lacking in recent times, so perhaps one of the positives that Stevie Frail has helped bring to the club is the passion that was perhaps lacking. I certainly hope that’s the case.
Hristos Karipidis scored the Hearts goal.
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A classic case of “never mind the ball, get on with the game” perchance? 🙂
I didnt see the game but i was listening to the analysis of it, they over-exaggerrated the scuffles.
If you didn’t see the game then how do you know they were exaggerating?