Hearts set to escape bill for door damage

HEARTS look set to escape a bill for damage caused to the dressing room door at Pittodrie after Aberdeen insisted that the matter is now closed.

A pane of glass in the away dressing room door was broken after a melee in the tunnel at the end of an explosive 90 minutes in the Granite City.

Robbie Neilson and Dons striker Lee Miller were yellow carded after a tussle as they left the field of play and then several players had to be pulled apart as the teams moved into the tunnel towards the dressing room.

Referee Iain Brines was then forced to red card Hearts defender Lee Wallace for using foul and abusive language towards him in the dressing room.

During the game, Brines had earlier dished out several yellow cards and sent off Marius Zaliukas for a clash with Miller and Andrew Considine while waiting for a Michael Stewart corner to come into the near post – although the Hearts defender looked unlucky to have been punished so severely.

Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood said after the match that he would have fined his players had they behaved in the same way as Zaliukas who, during the game, had motioned to Brines for a Dons player to be booked. However, despite the damage caused in the aftermath, the Pittodrie outfit won't make cash-strapped Hearts foot the bill for repairs to the door.

A spokesman for Aberdeen confirmed today: "There was a broken pane of glass in the dressing room door but the damage was not that bad. As far as we are concerned, there will be no further action as the matter was dealt with by the referee at the time."

Laszlo was infuriated with some of the refereeing decisions on Saturday, joking after the match that his players must have been fighting amongst one another to have received so many cards.

The sendings off leave him short of defenders for this weekend's derby clash with Hibs, however the Hearts manager has moved to boost his long-term options in midfield – although Ian Black won't arrive from Inverness until the summer.

The 23-year-old has signed a pre-contract with the Tynecastle club and Laszlo believes that he will be a huge asset to his side, adding: "Ian is an excellent example of our aim to bring the best young Scottish players to Hearts in order that both the club and the players will grow.

"We will continue to identify and assess young Scottish players and we will target those that are keen to truly develop their full potential. Hearts will be a club that will deliver real rewards for the best young players in the country.

"As can be seen by the wealth of interest in some of our current home-developed players, we're a club that will allow young Scottish players to flourish, providing their attitude and ambition matches that of this club."