NICHOLSON’S SPITTING BAN STANDS
SAM NICHOLSON will miss Hearts’ next two matches after the club decided not to appeal his red card for spitting towards a linesman.
The player was sent off during Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat at St Johnstone when assistant referee Stephen Mitchell informed referee Nick Walsh of his actions.
After poring over footage of the incident yesterday, the Tynecastle outfit concluded they would not take the matter any further.
The offence carries an automatic two-match ban, which means 22-year-old Nicholson (right) will miss tomorrow’s visit of Dundee followed by the trip to Rugby Park to take on Kilmarnock on April 14.
The former Scotland
Under-21 international, who came on as a substitute, had only been on the park for 16 minutes when the incident happened. He was adamant afterwards that he spat at the touchline, rather than at Mitchell. It remains to be seen whether any internal action will be taken by the club. Hearts declined to comment on the matter last night. Manager Ian Cathro had backed Nicholson immediately after the defeat at McDiarmid Park, which saw Hearts slide five points behind fourth-place St Johnstone. Cathro said at the time: ‘My understanding from Sam and the players around the situation is there is no way of being able to read that as an aggressive thing. ‘Sam says he just spat — not at the assistant referee. ‘Players do that in a game of football. We’ve all seen that before.’ Cathro is likely to address the spitting incident again at his Press conference today. Attacking midfielder Nicholson’s absence is yet another blow for the toiling Tynecastle team, who have lost six of their last seven matches, ahead of tomorrow’s Premiership encounter against Paul Hartley’s struggling Dens Park side. Hearts veteran midfielder Don Cowie yesterday insisted that he finds it difficult to believe Nicholson deliberately spat at the match official. ‘I didn’t see it, but if the linesman thinks it’s a sending off, then it’s a sending off,’ said the former Scotland international. ‘However, it’s definitely out of character for Sam if that is what has happened. ‘He is a very bubbly young guy, who I’ve given plenty of rollickings to and he never answers back or anything. ‘He just takes it, so I find that very hard to believe, but I can’t comment on what happened because I didn’t see it. ‘What he said was that there was nothing aimed towards the linesman. ‘He (referee Walsh) has maybe interpreted it a bit differently, which is why he’s sent him off.’ Cowie, 34, added: ‘There is a sense of injustice on Sam’s part because he is the only one who knows exactly what happened. ‘It happened so quickly that none of us were aware of what had happened. ‘We can only go on what Sam said. ‘Obviously, you believe him and it’s very out of character if that’s the case.’