Craig Levein continues feud with Derek McInnes after Hearts beat Hamilton

Posted Thursday, December 27, 2018 by PA

Hearts manager Craig Levein praised Steven Naismith for inspiring the Tynecastle side to a 2-0 victory over Hamilton before continuing his bitter feud with Aberdeen counterpart Derek McInnes.

On-loan Norwich striker Naismith opened the scoring after 18 minutes and was involved as Arnaud Djoum added a second in the 44th minute in what was a dominant performance.

Levein, however, is still clearly irked by the fallout from his side’s defeat at Pittodrie last Saturday after both he and McInnes exchanged differing views on major penalty decisions.

The former Scotland boss went as far as to call McInnes a “d**k” on Monday, with McInnes describing Levein as “childish” and “irrational” in response.

Asked about the Dons manager’s remarks, Levein said: “We have had a discussion and he knows what I think of him.

“He got involved in something that had nothing to do with him, speaking publicly about another manager and his team and I thought he was bang out of order – bang out of order.

“And I stand by everything I said about him and I am looking forward to him coming here the next time Aberdeen come here.”

Asked if he had spoken to McInnes, Levein added: “I texted him and told him what I think of him.”

Levein, though, was delighted with the performance of his team, particularly Naismith.

He added: “Naisy makes a huge difference to us and also to the opposition, because they look at the team sheet and think ‘oh, Naismith’s playing’.

“He’ll admit he can play better, but his general play helped the team and on another day we could have had five or six easily.

“We missed some really good chances so it’s good to see us back to the point where we can miss them and still win.”

It was a tough afternoon for Accies manager Martin Canning, who saw defender Shaun Want sent off after 71 minutes for a second booking.

The damage could have been worse but Hearts defender Michael Smith struck a penalty off the bar minutes later.

Canning said: “Someone told me it was 1977 since we last won here and that tells you how difficult that is, and for us to come here with a weakened team was always going to be difficult.

“That being said, we can defend both goals better and there were too many naive mistakes.”