New St Johnstone manager Craig Levein has joked that not only is he expecting to get booed by home fans on his return to Hearts this weekend – he’s HOPING for it!
The recently-appointed Perth boss has a long association with the Tynecastle club, where he served with distinction as a player, head coach (twice) and director of football.
Earlier this month, Levein ended a four-year dugout exile by taking on the challenge of keeping Saints in the Premiership.
And, after guiding his side to a draw and a win at McDiarmid Park before the international break, the 59-year-old’s first away fixture takes him back to the stadium he knows best.
”I’m looking forward to it,” said Levein.
“Obviously I’ve been back quite a few times to do games for the BBC but this will be a bit different.
“I don’t know if I’ll get booed – I would imagine I will. I would hope so anyway!
“I love it there.
“The atmosphere at Tynecastle is incredible.”
Hearts hard to predict
There may be familiarity in terms of the venue but predicting the performance level of Saturday’s opponents in this season’s Premiership campaign is proving to be no easy task.
“They’re striving for consistency,” said Levein. “They’ve had some really good performances and others not quite so good.
“I could probably level that at every club apart from Celtic and Rangers but even they’ve been a bit sketchy at times.
“So I don’t know what to expect from Hearts but hopefully I’ll get a good performance from my team.
“This last week and a bit has been beneficial because previously I had no real experience of getting to know the players because we were preparing for two games.
“I’ve been able to see what people can and can’t do.
“My big thing I suppose is ‘who can we make better in a short period of time?’”
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