LEVEIN WILL RESPECT THREAT OF INVERNESS

HEARTS boss Craig Levein insists Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Inverness will be anything but ‘routine’. The Gorgie side are favourites to beat Championship outfit Caley Thistle but Levein reckons that league status will count for little as the Edinburgh club attempt to reach their first final in the competition since beating Hibernian 5-1 seven years ago. Although he would love to wrap up a comfortable victory against John Robertson’s side, the ex-Scotland boss concedes it could easily turn out to be a tense afternoon. ‘Semi-finals are never routine. The opportunity is always there for both teams to win,’ he said. ‘Robbo will have his team keyed up and ready to go, and we’ll be the same. It’s an opportunity for us to get to the final of the biggest cup competition in Scotland. ‘Inverness are in good form. They started slowly, but they’ve picked up recently and had some good results. Robbo’s done a good job and I’m not surprised about that.’ Levein was a team-mate of Robertson’s for 14 years at Tynecastle and reckons he will be able to second guess his rival when it comes to team selection. ‘I went to see them against Ross County a few weeks ago but they had a man sent off in the first half, so I didn’t see them at their best,’ added Levein. ‘But their results have been good and they won at Ayr in their last game, which isn’t easy to do. I know Robbo well enough to know what sort of team he’ll put out.’