SFA rejects Shiels red card appeal

THE Scottish Football Association yesterday dismissed the appeal lodged by Hibernian against the red card shown to Dean Shiels during the derby match against Hearts following a controversial collision with goalkeeper Craig Gordon. The forward is now automatically suspended for today's match at Dunfermline Athletic.

Although Hibs contended Shiels didn't throw a punch at Gordon and the clash was unintentional, the SFA's review panel was unimpressed by the appeal and ratified the decision to dismiss the player for violent conduct.

In a statement on the SFA's website, the association confirmed: "The player had been sent off for colliding with the Heart of Midlothian goalkeeper Craig Gordon with excessive and unnecessary force. His arms had been raised to around Gordon's chest and neck area in the course of the collision. Dean Shiels is therefore suspended for his club's home match tomorrow against Dunfermline Athletic."

Although out of character - he'd only been booked once in 16 previous appearances - Shiels did suffer a rush of blood during the Boxing Day match after converting a penalty and clattering into the Hearts captain with his hands raised. As well as missing the Dunfermline game, Shiels will subsequently pick up a further one-match suspension for surpassing the 18-point disciplinary threshold.

While Shiels is banned, it remains to be seen whether or not Zibi Malkowski will retain his place today after a string of errors in big matches posed a question mark over the goalkeeper's reliability.

Although manager John Collins insisted earlier this week he wouldn't be swayed by the views of supporters, the Pole's mistake against Hearts has led to widespread calls for a change.

The Easter Road management team face a complex decision since the former first choice, Simon Brown, hasn't figured since the second game of the season and teenager Andy McNeil, who was on the bench in midweek, has yet to make a first-team appearance. For all his flaws, Malkowski may be the best man available.

"Every week we are faced with a decision on which XI to play," replied assistant manager Tommy Craig when asked about who would feature in goal. "And we've consistently said to the media that we are dealing with a squad of players. This may not be the answer you want to hear. But it's a squad game and [in the games coming up] we're going to find out how good this squad really is. We were always going to be using the squad to its fullest. The demands of tomorrow's game against Dunfermline might not be the same demands we face on Tuesday against Aberdeen. It may be you'll see two different [Hibs] sides in those games."

When pressed on whether Brown or McNeil was closer to challenging Malkowski for the goalkeeper's jersey, Craig was noncommittal.

"If I was to go down that route," he cautioned, "it would throw an element of doubt into our selection. And, at this moment in time, I don't want to do that. Although I appreciate why you're asking."

While one would guess an experienced goalkeeper and a solid centre-half will be on Hibs' wanted list during the transfer window in January, Craig was non-committal about the imminent arrival of any new faces over the next few weeks and described the mid-season shopping spree, often as not, turning out to be a bit of a damp squib.

Although Kevin Thomson and Steven Fletcher are due to return to the squad, a flu bug in the camp persuaded Collins to send his players home early yesterday.

Scott Brown, Michael Stewart and Chris Killen are the men causing "most concern", according to Craig, who was suffering from a sore throat himself. "We tried to do the right thing and get them back to their own places," he added.

Four points adrift of Hearts in fourth spot and eight points behind Aberdeen in second place, Hibs know inconsistent form away from home has cost them dearly this season.

"We've lost three of our last four games and, obviously, we're not too happy about that," added the assistant manager. "It's not beyond Dunfermline to cause a surprise and we have to be mindful of that.

"People say we're okay on our own patch, but we're inconsistent away from home. What we have to do is improve our away record. The only one of the last three I thought we deserved to lose was against Rangers at Ibrox. The other two against Falkirk and Hearts were winnable. But that also highlights our problem - these are games we've got to start winning.

"Ruthless, I think, is the word. John, myself and the players know exactly where improvement is needed."

Craig believes the current group of Hibs players have already shown their form is enterprising enough to win at places like Brockville and Tynecastle and that a sense of frustration lingering from the derby defeat will send the players into this afternoon's fixture against a Dunfermline side eight points adrift at the foot of the table with a point to prove. Any anger, if you want to call it that, we've bottled up has to be generated positively," he said. "But I'm sure we can do that because the players have excelled in a lot of games at home. A repeat of any one of half-a-dozen performances at Easter Road over the past ten weeks would do us nicely."

Taken from the Scotsman