Ross: I’m not feeling heat over Marv’s cheeky tweet
HEARTS midfielder Ross Callachan has labelled Marvin Bartley’s Twitter taunts “strange” after the Scottish Cup threw up another capital clash.
Hibs emerged victorious from the last derby in October, with a Simon Murray strike securing a 1-0 win on an electric night at Easter Road.
Bartley rubbed salt in the wounds on social media, singling out midfielder Callachan by writing: “Who is this Ross they talk of, I’m guessing he was injured today?!”
He later explained the message was in response to Hearts fans who had suggested Callachan would dominate the engine-room duel between the pair. But Jambos boss Craig Levein described it as “nonsense” and said: “It used to be you were man enough to say something on the field.”
Now the Edinburgh rivals will cross swords yet again after Hibs were handed a trip to Tynecastle in the fourth round and Callachan, speaking for the first time since inadvertently being caught up in the online storm, remains baffled by Bartley’s conduct.
Callachan said: “I have played against him a lot so we know each other a bit.
“For whatever reason he decided to tweet about me which is strange but it’s just one of those things.
“I was tagged in (Bartley’s tweet) by a few people but it didn’t bother me. It’s part of the game, the social media stuff.
“I see a lot of tweets about myself and other players. That’s up to them. There’s nothing I can really do about that and I don’t like getting involved.
“The last derby was a disappointing night and I’d be first to hold my hands up and say I wasn’t good enough. I think a lot of boys would hold their hands up too. It just gives us more incentive to do better.”
Hearts fans could be forgiven for dreading the prospect of yet another Scottish Cup clash against the Hibees. They have been dumped out by their rivals in the last two campaigns while they are yet to win any of the last-eight meetings between the sides.
The cup tie in January, plus a league clash between the sides on December 27, means they will face off at Tynecastle twice in less than three weeks.
But Callachan is adamant Hearts’ recent woeful record only serves to motivate the men from Gorgie.
He said: “Hibs have got the results in the last-eight games so we need to go and do it for the fans.
“It gives you that incentive to go into the next game or the next derby and do better.”