ROBBIE NEILSON has urged the authorities to throw the book at the Hibernian supporter who struck Hearts defender Alex Cochrane with a lighter at Easter Road.
The Jambos were leading 1-0 through Lawrence Shankland’s first-half goal before play had to be briefly stopped during the second half after Cochrane was struck by the missile from the stands and the referee’s attention was drawn to the incident.
Martin Boyle’s last-gasp equaliser ensured the bragging rights would be shared in the capital – and sparked a pitch invasion by some of the home supporters – and Neilson feels that the incident with Cochrane left a sour taste in his mouth as he expressed his sympathy with the task facing matchday stewards.
“It’s not good enough at all,” said the Hearts manager. “Not good enough. We need that stamped out of Scottish football, in any ground.
“I’m sure the authorities will come down heavy on it because you can’t have people coming to their work and getting hit with things like that.
I think we ask a lot of the stewards, let’s be honest. It’s a very, very difficult role to do.
“People speak about it all the time but these are people that are trying to cover 300, 400, 500 people. It’s almost impossible.
“I think it’s got to come from the clubs. It’s got to come from the SFA. It’s not acceptable. I don’t want the focus to be on that, it is all about the football, but you can’t have that.”
