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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Aidan Smith

Robbie Neilson reacts to Hearts brawl as he details how 'all hell broke loose'

Robbie Neilson has given his account after Hearts' friendly with Almeria was abandoned following an on-field brawl.

The Tynecastle boss told how "all hell broke loose" after Alex Cochrane put in a challenge on opposition player Rodrigo Ely.

Footage of the incident captured both sets of players scrapping on the surface as punches and forearms were thrown.

Both dugouts then entered the action before two red cards were shown.

As a result, the match was abandoned and Neilson admits the scenes were out of order.

He said: "I don't know to be honest with you. We were playing the game, a very competitive game, then all of a sudden on the far side there was a tackle from Alex, which I thought was just a standard tackle.

"Then all hell broke loose with all the players running round it, forearm smashes from their centre half on Alex.

"Then the ref just totally lost control of it, benches were over and there was about 60 people on the pitch.

"It was just a bit of a shambles. A pre-season game, we already have a number of injuries, so there was no point carrying it on.

"Tensions were extremely high to say the least. You come and play these games and look there is always going to be a competitive edge, but there is a line that you can't really cross.

"And that line was crossed several times and the referee just didn't have any control over it. He was all over the shop and just couldn't get it going again.

"We just felt there was no point. We got 45 minutes, it was a good run about and we played a couple of days ago as well. We just move on.

"We go back to the training camp and we have a session this afternoon for a number of them. We will train the next couple of days then come back."


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