Suspension rules the defender out of the SPFL Premiership match at Aberdeen

Normally quite a mild-mannered chap, the Hearts defender Craig Halkett can’t hide his anger as he prepares to serve a one-match suspension. A sixth caution of the season during Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Dundee United took him over the threshold and triggered a Scottish Football Association ban. He will now sit out his club’s Premiership match at Aberdeen a week on Sunday, much to his frustration.

Referee John Beaton deemed that Halkett fouled United’s Vicko Sevelj with a sliding challenge on 80 minutes and brandished a yellow card at the centre-back. Halkett beat the ground in a rare moment of outrage, knowing he would miss the Aberdeen fixture. Beaton missed Hearts full-back Stephen Kingsley being pulled back seconds beforehand in an incident which, if called correctly, would have seen play stopped and prevented Halkett being booked.

The player acknowledged that some bookings this term are his responsibility. However, Sunday’s left him boiling inside as he discussed the repercussions. “Yeah, I can't lie, I'm fizzing. It's still boiling in me now,” said Halkett. “I think especially that one, because obviously you're going into the game knowing that you're one [booking] away and I just thought it was a 50-50 tackle. We both collided with the ball. You can't help what direction the ball goes in.

“I think, just because it went the way he [Sevelj] was facing, he [Beaton] has given me the booking, but I think it's a yellow card and it's really disappointing. Looking over all the games where I've been booked, there are a few of them that are probably not deserved, but again I've got to take some accountability. There are some that I have got that I probably shouldn't have. It's just frustrating obviously missing a game. I want to play in every game this season, so to come out against Aberdeen, which is going to be a massive game, it's hugely disappointing.

“You're aware of it before you go into the game. When you've got that fifth booking, people at the club tell you that you're one away [from a ban]. But I'm a defender, I need to make hard tackles, I need to challenge for everything. You don't change the way you play and unfortunately I've picked up six bookings this year and I'm missing a game. Going into the game, I wasn't thinking about maybe not making a tackle or not going for a header because if I got booked I was missing a game, but I think it's hugely frustrating because I feel hard done by in the yellow card.”

Halkett’s dominant defending this season has seen him regain a regular starting place with Hearts whilst being touted in some quarters for a Scotland call-up. He knows he is playing well, which merely adds to the frustration when serving a ban. “Yeah, obviously I sat out the game last weekend [against Dundee],” he explained. “It was just a number of things, being on the five yellow cards, playing the majority of the games this season.

“We had a discussion that it had been quite a long time since I had played three games in six or seven days, whatever it was. I think it was good and the right time just to give my body a rest - make sure I'm staying fit and feeling healthy. But obviously I missed that game, come back in for Sunday's game, we're going to have a break now and then we come back and I'm missing the next game. I'm sitting here today and it's going to be maybe four or five weeks until I play. So yeah, it's frustrating.”

Despite Hearts sitting seven points clear at the top of the William Hill Premiership, Halkett admitted Sunday was a missed opportunity to make it nine. “Definitely, aye. In any game, any opposition we play here at Tynecastle, we want to be picking up three points, so to not do that is really disappointing,” he said. “I think when we go back over the game, I think we'd all admit that we weren't at our best.

“It's just one of those days, I think it's disappointing. If we can try and take any positives out of it, we didn't lose the game. I think the manager touched on that as well. When you're not at your best and you have one of your off days, if you can go and still pick up something from the game, then you need to take a positive from it. But the bigger picture, aye, we're really disappointed. I don't think we had anywhere near as much control in the game as what we look to have in the majority of games, especially at Tynecastle. It was just a bit frantic. I think all of us that played will admit that we weren't at our best.

“I think it's important that we are disappointed that we didn't win the game. When we go on the break next week and we look back at this first quarter and then the first game of the second quarter, we're unbeaten, we've not lost a game. The league position is what it is, but it's more just about when we play at Tynecastle, we want to win every game and obviously we didn't do that on Sunday.

“I think, in my whole time here, if you don't win your home games, it's always disappointing, it doesn't matter how you're playing. So I don't think how well we've done at the start of the season makes much of a difference. It's just a one-off game at home and we never won it.”

Being league leaders means you become a target for every team below. Hearts are still adapting to that status and the contrast from last season, when they finished a disappointing seventh. Halkett admitted it is a different feeling. “I think so. I think you could ask the other clubs, other players, other managers what they feel, but obviously that's us completed the first round of fixtures,” he said.

“I think Dundee United would be disappointed the way the game finished up there the last time [Hearts won 3-2 with a stoppage-time winner]. I think obviously every team is going to be coming to us and trying to be that team that beats us for the first time this season. But I think that, being a Hearts player, that's a good thing. That's added pressure into the game that you probably want and it gets you a wee bit more up for it. Again, it's just disappointing that we didn't win. I know we didn't get beat but we want to be winning every game.

“The manager went through his post-match and obviously let us know the disappointing parts of it. But just to finish, he spoke about the positives of the game that we are still unbeaten. We're through 12 games now and obviously it's a good place to be in. We're obviously always striving to get better and I think we can. I know we've been on a good run, we've got a good number of points, but I still think if everyone is honest, we've still got a wee bit more to give. It is a good place to be in, but it's just hard not to be disappointed after Sunday.”