Steven Naismith was forced to apologise to rival boss Barry Robson for not shaking his hand after Hearts win over Aberdeen.
The Jambos secured a 2-1 win at Tynecastle to keep them in the hunt for third in the Premiership and the Europa League group stages. At full-time, Naismith ran on to the pitch to celebrate with his players and left Robson hanging on the touchline.
Aberdeen’s staff were raging and made their feelings known to Hearts number two Frankie McAvoy. Afterwards, Naismith claimed it wasn’t a deliberate snub and said sorry to his former Scotland team-mate. He said: “That’s my bad and I was naive in that situation. In that moment, the passion, the will to win over rides the thought process.
“I have just apologised to him there. I know Barry will not be happy with me and he’ll have been raging after it, but that’s 100 percent my fault. I’ve spoken to him and apologised because he’s someone I consider a friend.”
Hearts have given themselves a fighting chance to reclaim third spot and pip the Dons to a potential £5 million jackpot. But with Aberdeen at home to St Mirren in midweek, they might need to take something off Rangers at Ibrox.
Naismith is adamant they can pull it off. He said: “We can go there and compete for sure, I really believe that. Today gives me a lot of confidence in terms of how we were calm, controlled in our possession.
“We can definitely go and compete. It’s an interesting week now. This win has clawed us much closer to Aberdeen than we were before the game. We go into the next week with two games again looking to cause more problems than the teams we come up against and give ourselves a chance.
“That is all we can do. At the time of season and from where the team was sitting, the morale everything – it was really tough to turn around. We have done a really good job of doing that, bringing in an attacking style of football which was pleasing for me.
“I enjoyed the celebrations at the end because it was a big game. Since the split all the games have been big. I think it’s my nature. I’m competitive, I want to win. I’ve consistently won throughout my career.”
Ginnelly hit a goal of the season contender to make it 1-1 but his quality doesn’t surprise Naismith any more. He said: “He has been a big player for us. I played with him and he had loads of inconsistency.
“He maybe lacked the drive to be really successful. But this season he has shown consistency and since I have taken over he has actually been a really good leader. I think he is enjoying it. I think he wants to play attacking football because it suits his attributes. He is enjoying the style we’re playing in.”
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