Kris Boyd has accused Craig Levein of playing to the gallery with his criticism of Scott Brown.
The Hearts boss claimed that everyone needed more protection from the Celtic skipper after Harry Cochrane was injured in the 3-1 defeat from Celtic.
Referee Craig Thomson saw nothing wrong with the challenge which occurred 25 yards from the Celtic goal.
None of the multitude of pundits that viewed the incident have accused Brown of doing anything wrong with the SFA Compliance Officer and United Nations still to comment.
Cochrane has picked up four yellow and one red card in his 14 appearances this season with Boyd highlighting when the teenager was happy to put the boot in.
“PLAYERS NEED PROTECTION FROM HARRY COCHRANE” say the other eleven SPFL Managers ! ???? pic.twitter.com/iiv6dVO2fd
— hibsboy69 ???????????? (@hibsboy69) February 2, 2018
“It’s worth remembering that Cochrane smashed John McGinn in his first Edinburgh derby, so he can’t have it all ways,” the Kilmarnock striker highlighted in The Sun. “Let’s see this for what it is, though.
“Levein is playing to the galleries with his comments. It was like after Hearts beat Hibs and he spoke about restoring the natural order. Now he’s having a go at Broony, who started his career at Easter Road.
“While he’s defending Cochrane, the point of his argument is to play up to the Hearts supporters. The bottom line is that it’s a man’s game. It’s not boys’ football he’s playing in now.
“And you cannot expect to go toe-to-toe with someone as competitive as Broony without it being physical at times.
“Unfortunately the wee man is facing two or three weeks on the sidelines with his injury and that’s unfortunate but watch him when he comes back. He’ll fly into tackles harder than ever, just wait.”
At lunchtime today Boyd is likely to be in the Kilmarnock side that faces Celtic hoping to score against the hoops for the second time in his 17 year long career.