CLASH SEES JAM TARTS’ FRIENDLY CALLED OFF

Hearts’ friendly against Almeria in Spain was called off after clashes between opposing players.

The match against the Laliga side was stopped in the first half, Hearts’ Alex Cochrane and Almeria’s Rodrigo Ely having both been shown red cards after what the Scottish Premiership club called “a heated argument” following a challenge.

Hearts tweeted: “Following altercations between both sets of players, the decision has been made to abandon the match.”

Hearts, who lost 4-0 to Blackburn in their previous friendly in Spain on Friday, were trailing 1-0 when the match was abandoned.

Hearts boss Robbie Neilson accused the Spanish players of over-reacting to a “standard” tackle and said there was little option but to abandon the game after the referee “totally lost control”.

Neilson said: “It was a very competitive game and all of a sudden on the far side there was a tackle from Alex which I thought was just a standard tackle and then all hell broke loose.

“The ref just totally lost control of it – benches were over and there was about 60 people on the pitch.

“It was just a bit of a shambles, so we just felt that in a pre-season game, there’s no point carrying on because tensions were extremely high to say the least.

“There’s always going to be a competitive edge but there’s a line... I think it got crossed several times.”

Hearts return to Edinburgh at the start of this week.

Neilson added: “It was a good run out and we played a couple of days ago as well and we just move on.

“We’ll train here the next couple of days then head back.”

Should Cochrane have to serve a two-game ban, he will sit out Hearts’ matches against Kilmarnock and Dundee United on December 17 and 24 respectively.