Levein blasts ‘dirty tricks’

FURIOUS Scotland boss Craig Levein today hit out at Lithuania’s rough-house tactics in their 0-0 draw in Kaunas.

Levein accused Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir of failing to protect his players in a bruising opener to their European Championship qualifying campaign.

The Scotland manager claimed Lithuania were allowed to deliberately break up play with a string of fouls as they dropped two valuable points. Five players were yellow carded – three of them Lithuanians.

The build-up to the game had been dominated by Scotland skipper Darren Fletcher calling for referee Cakir to be strong and watch out for “cheating” by the Lithuanians.

But the official failed to take a firm hand, which irritated the Scotland boss.

Levein said: “It looked as if Lithuania were willing to do anything to stop us playing.

“Guys in their team had five or six fouls individually without receiving a yellow card, some of the challenges were outrageous.”