Neilson and McPake hit with misconduct charges

HeArTs manager robbie Neilson and Dundee boss James McPake have both received misconduct charges from the scottish Football Association. The pair, whose teams meet at Tynecastle on saturday, were both sent off at the weekend. Neilson has been offered a one-match ban but there is no fixed suspension for McPake. Hearing dates have been pencilled in for November 4. Neilson was shown a yellow card at Ibrox on saturday after calling for Juninho Bacuna to be sent off following the rangers midfielder’s clash with stephen Kingsley. He appeared to clap and put his thumbs up towards referee Don robertson and was instantly shown another yellow and sent off. McPake was shown a straight red card towards the end of his team’s 2-1 victory over Aberdeen after appearing to throw the ball back into his dugout when Dons left-back Jack MacKenzie was looking to take a quick throw-in. Neilson, meanwhile, expects Hearts to use the ‘history’ of their expulsion from the Premiership as extra motivation when they face Dundee this weekend. The Dens Park outfit were left with the casting vote in the decision over whether to prematurely end the campaign when the coronavirus pandemic struck towards the end of season 2019-20. Their initial vote apparently went missing and managing director John Nelms was later forced to deny they had been pressured into subsequently backing the option to conclude the term early. That decision led to Hearts being demoted on a points-per-game basis, despite having eight games remaining to save their top-flight status. Neilson said: ‘Dundee will want to be the first team to win against us. The historical stuff last year is something we need to make sure we remember going into the game.’