John McGlynn: Hearts can’t waste £1000 on appeal

Hearts manager John McGlynn revealed that the club decided against an appeal over Ryan Stevenson’s red card at Tannadice because they believed the decision would not be overturned.

McGlynn also questioned whether Hearts could afford to waste the £1000 fee to lodge an appeal with the Scottish

Football Association.

Stevenson now misses three matches – home games with Kilmarnock and Inverness and a trip to St Mirren – having been dismissed for serious foul play. McGlynn said: “I spoke to John Fleming (SFA head of refereeing development). Although he can’t talk about a specific tackle, he can talk you through what is serious foul play.

“We generally got the feeling we would not have stood an awful lot of chance with the appeal even though we were up in arms on Saturday about it.

“Have we got a £1000 to throw down the tubes at the minute?”

News worsened for McGlynn yesterday when it emerged that his captain, Marius Zaliukas, may have played his last game for Hearts.

The Lithuanian was due for surgery on torn ankle ligaments today and will be sidelined for around three months. That takes him through until the end of the season, by which time he will be out of contract. He is unlikely to be offered a renewal given his high wages.

“That’s probably him for the season, which is a blow,” added McGlynn.