Scottish soccer: McAllister hits out at Hartson

Aberdeen defender Jamie McAllister was shocked that Celtic star John Hartson needlessly ‘‘lashed out’’ at him.

Celtic were cruising towards the semi-finals of the Tennent’s Scottish Cup with a 2-0 win at Pittodrie last night when the Welshman reacted badly to a challenge and was dismissed.

Manager Martin O’Neill will look at a video of the incident before deciding whether to fine him or not but his victim is convinced that the intention was there.

‘‘I’m alright,’’ said McAllister. ‘‘It’s more or less caught my shoulder. ‘‘He’s scraped my shoulder from the studs, but it’s something or nothing.

‘‘I’m surprised by it because there was no need to do it because they were 2-0 up. I don’t know why he did it maybe it was just a spur of the moment thing. But there was nothing sinister between us.

‘‘I’ve come through the back of him and won the ball and we’ve fell on the deck and he’s just lashed out.’’

Hartson will now miss Saturday’s Scottish Premier League match with Aberdeen at Parkhead and he will also be sweating on whether he will face Dundee United or Ayr United in the semi.

O’Neill was without Henrik Larsson and Joos Valgaeren while Chris Sutton suffered an ankle injury after being cruelly challenged by Darren Young before Hartson’s sending off.

But McAllister denied the Welshman was seeking retribution and said: ‘‘I don’t think he was. He just reacted to a challenge.’’

O’Neill admitted that he refused to take a risk on Larsson, especially with the World Cup looming.

He limped off against Dundee last week and had been receiving round-the-clock treatment to be fit in time.

But O’Neill decided that playing Larsson and Valgaeren was not worth the risk.

‘‘Henrik had a scan last week and it didn’t show anything serious,’’ said O’Neill. It’s one of those things and I felt, with the games coming up, that we didn’t want to risk him.

‘‘We didn’t want to see him miss out for an even bigger length of time and he’s also got the World Cup coming up and I’m sure he’d like to play in that.

‘‘I don’t want to rush him back quickly and do himself an injury and miss out on the World Cup.’’

O’Neill, meanwhile, revealed that Kilmarnock had been in touch over the availability of coach Tommy Burns.

The Ayrshire outfit have been without a manager since Bobby Williamson’s dramatic departure on Sunday.

Williamson was unveiled as Hibernian’s new manager at a press conference yesterday morning.

But despite Kilmarnock chairman Sir John Orr threatening legal action Williamson, they have started their search for a replacement with Burns on their short-list.

‘‘We came up to Aberdeen on Sunday night,’’ said O’Neill. ‘‘But yesterday I did get a call from Jim Hone (contracts manager).

‘‘He told me that he had received a call from Kilmarnock asking to speak to Tommy.

‘‘Obviously I’ll speak to Tommy about it and take it from there. He is still in demand.’’

O’Neill is unlikely to stand in Burns’ way if he chose to take the manager’s job.

The former Celtic star had been interviewed for the St Johnstone manager’s job earlier this season before deciding to return to Celtic to continue his work at youth level.

Burns has also been targeted by new Scotland coach Bert Vogts, who has made it clear that he wants him to join his coaching team and to help him acclimatise to the Scottish game.