CRAIG LEVEIN last night dismissed Neil Lennon’s accusation of Hearts being irrelevant following his side’s derby win.
The gap between the two Edinburgh clubs is 17 points but the Hearts manager insisted they were a lot closer than the league position would suggest.
No matter what comes out of Easter Road this season.
Read more: Neil Lennon could sensationally quit Hibernian after branding his players as 'unprofessional'
Levein said: “We’ve put them out of the Scottish Cup and stopped them being second. Is that irrelevant?
“That’s not my opinion (that the gap is huge). I do feel there are reasons why we haven’t performed this season. If Hibs had faced the challenges we have, the gap may have been as big the other way. You saw tonight they’re fairly equal.
“As long as the players give everything, they’ve got a free pass rom fans. And they did that. Secondly, to be pegged back so soon after half-time was a real body blow. Then to go and win the match, I was really pleased about that.”
Read more: Brendan Rodgers: It would've been hard for Celtic against 11 firemen Kilmarnock were so deep
Levein reserved special praise for 17-year-old Harry Cochrane.
He said: “I don’t think he gave the ball away all evening, on a pitch that was really slick, was sublime. Harry was unbelievable.
“I’ve not coached a player who has as much promise as him. Maybe coached some – but none have proved they can play at this level, at 17."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel