Hearts are happy with their training facilities at Oriam despite Scotland coach John Carver raising a 'safety hazard'

Scotland coach John Carver today criticised training pitches at Edinburgh’s Oriam sports complex which is used by Hearts, although the issues raised do not affect the Edinburgh club.

The Evening News has learned that Hearts are happy with their facilities and do not use the area referred to by Carver. Scotland moved training from Oriam to Lesser Hampden ahead of forthcoming European Championship qualifiers against Cyprus and Spain and Carver explained some reasons why.

The national team worked on Pitch 1 at Oriam in recent years, whilst Hearts occupy pitches in a different area of the centre at Riccarton. Carver stated that the surface was not up to standard but Tynecastle officials have no issues with their arrangement.

“We had to move from Oriam because we couldn’t get any accommodation in the hotel there,” said Carver. “Also, when you have someone like Willie Haughey [Queen Park’s financial backer], who wants to help the national team, him and his staff have been incredible.

“I will give you an example. The surface is Premier League standard. We haven’t had one player slip on the surface this morning. With all due respect to Oriam, the surface was a safety hazard in my eyes. The pitch looked good on the eye. You guys were there quite often and you only saw us working in small areas.

“For some reason the surface would give way. For the guys who were training on it, for me, it was a safety hazard, a health risk. I am surprised we didn’t get any serious injuries from it, especially at the pace and tempo these guys were playing at and are playing at now.

“It was a huge concern. Nearly every one of them [raised concerns] and we had to curtail training at times.”