Levein lashes out at McInnes again as Jambos win
HEARTS landed the punches on the pitch in a comfortable 2-0 victory over Hamilton and manager Craig Levein’s is still unleashing the verbal salvos off it as he continued his bitter feud with Aberdeen counterpart Derek McInnes.
The Tynecastle side earned only their second win from 11 outings as firsthalf goals from the inspirational Steven Naismith and Arnaud Djoum swatted aside Accies.
It was a timely, morale-boosting win for the hosts ahead of Saturday’s clash at Edinburgh rivals Hibernian as they showed glimpses of the kind of form that they demonstrated in leading the Premiership until only last month.
After singling out on-loan Norwich City striker Naismith for praise, manager Levein claimed he stood be his decision to brand McInnes a ‘d***’ over the Pittodrie fall out centring on their respective penalty complaints five days ago.
After his side’s defeat to Celtic, McInnes responded by calling Levein ‘irrational’ and ‘childish’ and the former Scotland manager did not refrain from offering a rejoinder.
Levein said: “We have had a discussion and he knows what I think of him.
“He got involved in something that had nothing to do with him, speaking publicly about another manager and his team and I thought he was bang out of order – bang out of order.
“And I stand by everything I said about him and I am looking forward to him coming here the next time Aberdeen come here.”
Asked if he had spoken to McInnes, Levein added: “I texted him and told him what I think of him.”
Levein was rightly smiling, however, as he analysed his team’s dominant performance.
The Gorgie outfit took the lead after 18 minutes when Naismith curled in a shot from 15 yards after finding space to receive a Ben Garuccio pass.
Djoum slammed home a second in the 44th minute after being found Callumn Morrison’s cross.
On loan Norwich City striker Naismith was the stand-out in only his second appearance since undergoing knee surgery.
“He makes a huge difference to us and also to the opposition, because they look at the team sheet and think ‘aw, Naismith’s playing’”, said Levein.
Hamilton manager Martin Canning, whose team remain two points clear of the relegation zone ahead of their clash with local rivals Motherwell, said: “Someone told me it was 1977 since we last won here and that tells you how difficult that is, and for us to come here with a weakened team was always going to be difficult.
“That being said, we can defend both goals better and there were too many naive mistakes.”
‘‘ I thought he was bang out of order – bang out of order