Ian Cathro defended Sam Nicholson last night after Hearts’ second half substitute was dismissed during their 1-0 defeat at the hands of St Johnstone having been accused of spitting at an official.

The midfielder had been on the pitch for only 16 minutes when he was dismissed in the 83rd after assistant referee Stephen Mitchell called referee Nick Walsh over to report the incident, resulting in the red card being shown by the official who was also at the centre of events during last week's Easter Road bust up involving Jim Duffy and Neil Lennon.

“The accusation that has been made is that he has spat in the direction of the assistant referee,” said the Hearts manager.

“We will look at the footage but 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.

“My understanding is that is the case from Sam’s telling of the situation and other players around it. So we suffer twice in games with this referee.”

That was a reference to Mr Walsh’s dismissal of Esmael Goncalves when he was shown two yellow cards against Partick Thistle back in February.

“It was the same situation at Partick Thistle, I think there were some parts in that game where he was a little bit quick to judge but let’s leave that there,” he continued.

“It’s a serious allegation and my understanding again is that the assistant referee has made the decision. So that, to me, puts a lot of pressure on the assistant to be absolutely certain that is the case.

“We will be looking to appeal if we review this and decide Sam is innocent, but let’s do things one step at a time and deal with it properly and as calmly as possible.”