Hearts opt not to appeal Nicholson’s spit red card

Sam Nicholson will miss Hearts’ next two matches after the Tynecastle club decided against appealing the winger’s red card for spitting towards an official.

The Gorgie outfit had until 3pm yesterday to inform the Scottish Football Association of their intention to contest the dismissal but it is understood they declined to do so, meaning the decision will definitely stand.

The 22-year-old was given his marching orders by referee Nick Walsh during Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat by St Johnstone, with footage showing Nicholson taking several steps back from the assistant referee, Stephen Mitchell, before spitting in his direction.

While Mitchell was not struck, the Scotland under-21 cap was shown a red card for the act.

It is understood Walsh’s official match report cited the player for a breach of rule A3, which relates to “spitting at an opponent or any other person” and carries an automatic twogame ban which will come into effect immediately.

Nicholson had been on the field for only 16 minutes prior to the indiscretion, which occurred 83 minutes into the clash in Perth. Hearts head coach Ian Cathro gave his public backing to Nicholson immediately after the fulltime whistle, stating: “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.”