Black and booed
Ian Black said he was "disappointed" to be booed by fans on his Scotland debut last night while Craig Levein, the manager, claimed the behaviour was only down to the controversial former Hearts player taking the field at Hibernian's Easter Road, writes Michael Grant and Graeme Macpherson.
Scotland's fine 3-1 win over Australia in the final friendly before the first World Cup qualifier against Serbia next month was overshadowed when Black came off the bench 15 minutes from the end. His name was jeered by the 11,000 crowd and then his every touch was also booed.
Many supporters had criticised Levein for bringing Black into the squad, just a week after saying it would be difficult for any player in the third division to step up to international standard but it was shocking to hear a Scotland player being subjected to sustained verbal abuse on what should have been a special night in his career.
Given that Ryan McGowan, the Australian substitute, was also jeered, the assumption was that Black was heckled by Hibernian supporters as he is a former Hearts player.
"It's a bit disappointing when you come here to play for your country and for the fans who are supposed to be supporting you and they do that," said Black. "But I'm big enough to get on with it and I hope I get another opportunity.
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 hereComments are closed on this article