Hearts’ friendly abandoned due to MASS BRAWL between players and staff

Hearts’ friendly abandoned due to a MASS BRAWL which broke out between players and staff as the match descends into chaos.

The Scottish outfit came to blows with their Spanish opponents Almeria in a game (11am kick off, 4th December) in preparation for the return to Premiership action in a couple of weeks’ time.

Robbie Neilson put out a strong side, including the likes key first team stars with the likes of Lawrence Shankland, Barrie McKay and Michael Smith all featuring.

He dedicado mi mañana de domingo a ver cómo una asiática con orejas de conejo comentaba la pelea a puños entre los jugadores del Almería y del Heart en un campo de entrenamiento de Marbella. pic.twitter.com/RjcGgpUqyo

— César Vargas (@_CesarVargas) December 4, 2022

Things had been going by normally, with Almeria going ahead on the 28th minute lead through Dyego Sousa.

But that all changed 10 minutes later when a challenge led to players from both sides getting involved in heated scenes, with both Jambos defender Alex Cochrane and Almeria’s Rodrigo Ely anded red cards by the referee.

Almeria tweeted that the referee had “suspended” the game while journalist Craig Fowler, in attendance, noted that Robbie Neilson had taken his players off the pitch and that the game was over.

Fowler said that “a full blown fight” had broken out between the players with punches thrown and coaching staff involved.

He said: “A full blown fight has broke out between the Almeria and Hearts players. Punches thrown and everything. Coaching staff getting in each other’s faces. Incredibly it’s been coming as well. This “friendly” has had some amount of needle.

“And the game has been abandoned. Robbie Neilson has taken the Hearts players off. It’s all over here in Malaga. 1-0 Almeria. Incredible stuff 😂

“Thought Darge and their number 23 were throwing punches (as did those watching around me), but looks a bit more ‘push in the face’ from this. The “fuck are you daeing?” shouts added to the spice 👌 What we can all agree on: these are the scenes we like to see 😁”

Hearts are currently on a domestic break and will return to league action against Kilmarnock on the 17th of December. Robbie Neilson’s side previously lost 4-0 to friendly opponents Blackburn Rovers while out in Spain.

A frustrated Neilson told Hearts TV: “We were playing the game – it was a very competitive game – and all of a sudden on the far side their was a tackle from Alex which I thought was a standard tackle and all hell broke loose with the players running round it, forearm smashes from their centre half on Alex.

“The ref totally lost control of it. Benches were over and there were about 60 people on the pitch. It was a bit of a shambles and we felt with it being a friendly game and with a number of injuries there was no point in carrying on because tensions were extremely high to say the least.

“You come and play these games and there has to be a competitive edge but there’s a line you can’t cross and it got crossed several times and the referee didn’t have control. He was all over the shop and couldn’t get it going again so we felt there was no point. We got 45 minutes out of it and it was a good runout and we played a couple of days ago so we move on.”

Fans reacted as the Hearts’ friendly gets abandoned due to a MASS BRAWL between players and staff…

@GraemeMackenzi4: Hearts starting a scrap against Almeria then shitting it and getting game postponed. Typical Edinburgh behaviour right there!

@leftwardcargos: Fair play. Almeria have a few players I would not mess with but Hearts may well do too.

@GarrethAspinall: So much for a friendly…

@Joshuafry2310: Welcome to Scottish football Almeria lads

@jacobiteabroad: Banter.

@burnsi92: That’s one way to avoid another friendly hammering 😂

@Dj_mcneil99: Scottish fitba is so elite that nobody is even questioning why the commentators on a Hearts friendly is a fucking cam girl

@ArcticReviews: There’s a fair amount to unpack here.

@Aidentoye: The Scottish way man 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

@davidflynn36: Robbie neilson will blame everyone but hearts for it, then brush his hair with a sausage supper.

@teddy_ross1992: Who’s Robbie Neilson going to blame this time.

@Kmair9: Actually can’t believe people on my Twitter feed moaning about hearts players. If you’ve seen it you clearly see the boy running up and punching Cochrane what you want them to do shake his hand or stand up for their teammate

@CanOnlyBeOne_: What the World Cup has been lacking.

@wallace92hfc: Happy Sunday 👏🤣

@captainjamtart: A full blown pagger is what we love to see none of this friendly pish 😁🇱🇻👊

@ecm_242: Abandoning a friendly. Decent patter 😂👏

@bmacfarlane_1: Cinch heritage.

@RSCSpeckyB: Nothing better than a friendly and a scrap abroad. Some amount of footballers stories out there that it always happens 😂 class that there’s footage of this one

@ian_rfc_72: Shockin scenes. Barrie McKay scratched some cunts eyes oot.

@willste92: Aaron Darge 10 year deal.

@Jamiebrodie7: Ref is hibs as fuck. Wee stamp on Cochrane, love it! 💚

@xKeyyz: On you go aaron 😂😂😂

@AndyArchibald26: Who’s number 5? Give them an extension, right over throwing digs! A lot of time for that

@camford1874: Big Arron Darge scrapping with a few left hooks is the best thing to see on a Sunday afternoon. In protecting his teammates making sure that everyone is safe. 10 year deal now.