FOLLOW US ON TWITTER | FACEBOOK
HIBERNIAN will find out tomorrow (Thursday) if Marvin Bartley can play in Saturday’s top-of-the-table clash with Queen of the South after they formally lodged an appeal against the midfielder’s red card.
Bartley was dismissed by referee Nick Walsh for a challenge on opposite number Jamie Adams in the shock 2-1 defeat at home to Ayr United at the weekend.
The 67th-minute sending off rocked the Easter Road outfit, who subsequently conceded an equaliser seven minutes later before Brian Gilmour’s 80th-minute winner.
Hibs manager Neil Lennon could not believe Walsh’s decision and insisted the ‘red card completely changed the game’.
He said after the match: “It looked pretty innocuous to me – just a late challenge, not two-footed, not high.”
The Scottish Cup winners had until 3 p.m. on Tuesday to submit the paperwork required to try to overturn the sending off and the two-match ban it carries, and the SFA have confirmed they have accepted delivery of the appeal.
A spokesman said: “We have received a claim for wrongful dismissal from Hibernian.”
Bartley’s case will now be considered by a judicial panel at Hampden on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Lennon is expected to decide in the coming days whether to offer a contract to Wales internationalist Neal Eardley.
The former Oldham Athletic, Blackpool and Birmingham City full-back has been on trial with the capital club and played for 80 minutes in Tuesday’s under-20s match against Falkirk.
The 27-year-old is recovering from a cruciate ligament injury sustained playing for Birmingham in January and has been attempting to convince Hibs of his fitness in training for the past fortnight.
Lennon is keen to recruit competition and back-up for skipper David Gray at right-back and ran the rule over Eardley in the 3-3 draw at Oriam, Scotland’s sports performance centre at Heriot Watt University, yesterday afternoon.
It remains to be seen whether the Hibs boss was sufficiently impressed with the Welshman but Martin Boyle’s double in the match could have pressed the attacker’s case for a starting berth against Queens at the weekend.
