Hearts manager Craig Levein admits he is yet to decide whether Colin Doyle should retain the gloves after the goalkeeper made a costly error in last weekend’s defeat to Motherwell.
The Republic of Ireland internationalist allowed David Turnbull’s tame injury-time free-kick to squirm past him into the net in the 2-1 loss.
Doyle, who had pulled off a series of fine saves during the game, apologised to his team-mates after the match before expressing his regret over the goal in a Tweet, saying: “No excuses. I cost us a point. I’ll learn from it and move on."
The 33-year-old has been the recognised number one since replaced Zdenek Zlamal on December 22, keeping six clean sheets in ten appearances.
However, Levein is now weighing up whether to recall Zlamal for Saturday’s visit of St Mirren.
Levein said: “I don’t need to speak to Colin, he’s an experienced goalkeeper and he knows he made a mistake.
“There’s no point in going over it. I haven’t made my mind up about the team for the weekend yet.
“The good thing is that I’ve got a choice between two experienced goalkeepers.
“If he was a young boy I’d be more concerned about him having made a mistake, but I think the experienced guys tend to deal with it better.
“He’s not made many mistakes for us. Whenever people make mistakes, you hope it doesn’t cost you but unfortunately this one cost us a point.
“Other people have made mistakes that have cost us points in the season as well. It’s just something that happens within a season’s worth of football.”
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Levein, meanwhile, admits his opinion of Ben Garuccio’s red card for a challenge on Liam Grimshaw has not changed despite Sportscene pundits Michael Stewart and Steven Thompson insisting that the tackle was fair.
He added: “I didn’t think there was point in appealing it.
“The rules are pretty clear. He’s left the ground so I couldn’t see us winning an appeal.
“Ten years ago we’d have won it on the basis that he won the ball but I’ve been involved in enough of theses cases now to know when it’s worth an appeal and when it’s not.
“The Motherwell player took a poor touch which put the ball in an area where Ben thought he could get it, but it was just outside that line for him.
“To get the distance that he got, he had to leave the ground and when you leave the ground you’re wide open to getting a red card. I feel for him because it was a split-second decision, and if the player had taken a better touch he wouldn’t have been enticed into the tackle.”
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