IAN CATHRO has labelled the decision to play Hearts’ Scottish Cup replay against Raith Rovers on Wednesday night as “crazy”.
A dramatic leveller by Rovers star Declan McManus ensured the sides must square off at Tynecastle just three days after yesterday’s fixture in Fife.
Jambos head coach Cathro insists he did not realise the game would take place so swiftly after the original tie, having been sufficiently confident that Hearts would progress at the first time of asking.
Now, however, the Gorgie outfit must squeeze a tricky encounter against Rovers into the schedule ahead of Premiership games against Celtic and Rangers.
“Playing Wednesday is not great. I didn’t even know it was the case until ten minutes ago,” said Cathro.
“It seems a bit crazy to play back to back. I understand there are a lot of scheduling demands – but that doesn’t make sense for a lot of reasons.
“But we’ve no choice in the matter, I don’t know if there is any way round it. I expected us to win today so I didn’t even look at when the replay was. I expected us to win. We haven’t and we’ve just found it out [when the replay will be].”
He added: “There is no major need for an over-reaction to the result. We’ve not got what we wanted – but now we have to get it done on Wednesday night.”
Raith boss Gary Locke also conceded that such a swift replay was far from ideal, adding: “It’s a quick turnaround. It would be better if we had a league game first but since that’s the way it is, then we’ll go again on Wednesday.”
