Backing for Hearts’ Craig Beattie to stay on pens

CRAIG BEATTIE has received votes of confidence from Hearts manager Paulo Sergio and winger David Templeton following his penalty miss against Rangers.

Both men said the striker should not be absolved of the responsibility of taking the next spot-kick.

After earning hero status by scoring a late winning penalty in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic, Beattie struck the crossbar from the spot in the 74th minute of Saturday’s 3-0 defeat by Rangers at Tynecastle. The visitors were only 2-0 ahead at the time, leaving Hearts to rue the miss as it denied them any hope of overhauling the deficit.

However, both Sergio and Templeton have spoken out in defence of Beattie. “I have confidence in him, we had other chances to score,” stressed Sergio. “If we have a penalty he can pick up the ball again. It’s not just about the penalty, one goal could have changed things.”

Templeton admitted: “If he gets one in the next game hopefully he can put that one away.”

It was Templeton who earned the penalty after dribbling past Sone Aluko and being tripped inside the Rangers box.

He had replaced Andy Driver as substitute to make his first appearance since February 18 after recovering from a persistent groin problem.