Butcher’s reaction to touchline ban
Hibs’ boss Terry Butcher will be banned from the dugout and tunnel area for Saturday’s fixture against St Johnstone at Easter Road.
Butcher was sent to the stand along with former Hibs star Darren Jackson during a League Cup tie between Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dundee United earlier in the season.
He was initially banned for two games, one of which was suspended until the end of the season and fined £1000, however his appeal was heard at Hampden Park yesterday and although the ban stands, the fine was rescinded.
Afterwards Butcher told Hibernian TV: “I’ve still got a one match ban which comes into effect on Saturday against St Johnstone with one suspended until the end of the season and the thousand pound fine has been scrubbed. Also the thousand pounds that the club had to pay for the appeal has been repaid because the appeal was successful. It’s the best result I could have hoped for and now I just want to draw a line under it and move on.
“We have to look at Saturday of course and I won’t be in the dugout bit I’m used to watching games from the stand at Easter Road and Maurice (Malpas) has already had a result there in charge of a team too, so I have a fantastic deputy and a fantastic guy on the touchline so Ihave no worries on that score. We had a similar situation last year against Ross County in the Highland derby when Maurice took charge and we won 3-1 so we know what to do. It’s not nice and it’s something I regret but it’s happened.”
At that game Butcher used a runner to communicate with the bench, however the distance between the director’s box and the tunnel in the West Stand makes that impractical although he has total confidence in his assistant Maurice Malpas who will direct affairs from the touchline.
He continued: “In the end I won’t need to communicate much as Maurice is a very experienced coach and is really another manager in many aspects and he knows what to do.
“It won’t affect the match day plans all that much. I’ll give the team talk at 1.40pm and at 1.55pm O have to be away from the dressing room and tunnel area and go upstairs so there’s not really much of a change as the players go out at 2.20pm for a warm up anyway.
“The hardest thing is at half time when you can’t go down to the dressing room but that’s where I trust Maurice implicitly 100% to get the job done and to make any adjustments he needs to do. We will be in touch by phone or walkie talkie but I have to adhere to the regulations and I will do.
Photo by John Preece