Banned Paul Heckingbottom facing 'nightmare' at Hamilton - but insists Hibs players won't be fazed

Paul Heckingbottom serves the first of a two-game ban when Hibs travel to Hamilton on Saturday

The Easter Road head coach will have to watch from the stand at the FOY Stadium after being punished by the SFA for his actions during the capital outfit’s draw against Celtic, including kicking a water bottle that hit assistant referee Alan Mulvanny.

Under the rules, Heckingbottom will be banned from entering the away dressing room for a period before the match and again at half-time, leaving his assistant Robbie Stockdale to take charge of the team.

However, the Yorkshireman insisted he didn’t expect his absence from the technical area to affect his players, pointing out that the hard work of preparing for the match is done during the week at their East Mains training base.

Nevertheless, Heckingbottom conceded he faces a frustrating afternoon, having suffered a similar experience south of the border - the difference being there he was allowed to talk to his players during the interval.

Speaking for the first time since his disciplinary hearing at Hampden, he said: “I’m not looking forward to it. Robbie is used to being on the touchline, that won’t faze him. That will be fine.

“But not being able to go into the dressing room at half-time will be new to me.”

Although he feels that for much of the afternoon he’ll be no more than a spectator, Heckingbottom revealed a clear plan will be in place as to how he can communicate with Stockdale.

He said: “It’s a case of us making sure we know exactly what the rules are, what we can do and can’t. The one thing we do not want to look is disorganised or look in a panic. We’ll look at how we can communicate, what messages can be sent down at half-time such as having potential substitutes in mind depending on different scenarios.”

Heckingbottom, who will have a further one game ban hanging over him until the end of the season, admitted the worst period will probably be the run-up to the match when he’s at the stadium but unable to enter the dressing room, the fact it’s an away game meaning he can’t simply retreat to his office.

He said: “That will be a struggle, waiting around and feeling helpless. I’ll aim to get about speaking to people, not to be on my own and hope that time passes as quickly as possible. It will be a positive nightmare for me.”