Former Hearts winger misses out on return to Hampden

Lithuania will travel to Scotland without Hampden villain Saulius Mikoliunas after the former Hearts winger was left out of his country’s squad for next weekend’s World Cup qualifier against Gordon Strachan’s men. Head coach Edgaras Jankauskas has decided to overlook his former Tynecastle team-mate for the fifth successive game. But Jankauskas has included former Hearts attackers Arvydas Novikovas and Deividas Cesnauskis in his 23-man squad for the Group F clash in Glasgow a week tomorrow and the visit of Malta three days later.

Mikoliunas, who now plays for Zalgiris Vilnius in his homeland, spent four years at Hearts and helped the club win the 2006 Scottish Cup final, but the 32-year-old became the Tartan Army’s public enemy number one when he dived under a challenge from Darren Fletcher in a Euro 2008 qualifier.

The visitors cancelled out Kris Boyd’s opener from the penalty spot but Stephen Mcmanus and James Mcfadden scored to wrap up a 3-1 victory.

Mikoliunas more recently played at Hampden in a 1-0 Euro qualifying defeat in 2011.

Novikovas now plies his trade for German second-tier side Bochum, and wing-back Cesnauskis for Lithuanian A Lyga side FK Trakai.

Lithuania squad: Goalkeepers: Saulius Klevinskas, Ernestas Šetkus, Emilijus Zubas. Defenders: Vytautas Andriuškevičius, Deividas Česnauskis, Georgas Freidgeimas, Edvinas Girdvainis, Linas Klimavičius, Tomas Mikuckis, Vaidas Slavickas, Egidijus Vaitkūnas. Midfielders: Karolis Chvedukas, Mindaugas Grigaravičius, Mantas Kuklys, Vytautas Lukšas, Arvydas Novikovas, Simonas Paulius, Vykintas Slivka, Artūras Žulpa. Forwards: Fedor Černych, Deivydas Matulevičius, Tomas Radzinevičius, Nerijus Valskis.