Willie Collum will take charge of his first Hearts match in seven months when he referees Saturday’s game with Dundee at Dens Park.
The Euro 2016 bound whistler has endured a tough season with his attention seeking style under almost constant criticism.
In August after sending off Callum Paterson in the Hamilton Hearts match Robbie Neilson admitted that when Collum was in charge of his side they trained in preparation for playing with ten men.
That comment earned the Tynecastle boss a one match suspended touchline ban with Saturday’s visit to Dens Park the first time that Hearts have had Collum since August.
After Paterson’s red card Neilson admitted: “Every game we get a referee, we look at the stats and what way they referee the game. In certain games, certain referees will make decisions that another referee wouldn’t make.
“This game, with the officials we were getting, we knew there was a high probability of a man being sent off and it’s happened again. We tried to train with 10 men but we didn’t get our gameplan going as when it happened, with who came off, it made it difficult for us.”
Collum’s season has gone from bad to worse despite being appointed to referee in France during Euro 2016.
In successive matches in December he incorrectly awarded penalties to Falkirk, Sevco, Aberdeen and Inverness Caley Thistle.
After further high profile mistakes in a recent Inverness v Aberdeen match he was demoted to the Championship for two matches but with the countdown underway to France the SFA have to get him back in charge of high profile matches.
Steven Finnie will take charge of Celtic’s trip to Partick Thistle.