HEARTS, despite their morale-raising 1-0 League Cup victory over Celtic, are thinking of switching their tag as Scottish football's third force to the more appropriate 'third farce' following one of the stormiest days in the club's 122-year history.
The Edinburgh outfit have launched a furious protest to the Scottish Football Association, the game's ruling body, over the amazing clash with Rangers which saw FOUR of their players sent off, claiming that three of the red cards were a joke.
The Ibrox match - which Rangers won 3-0 - was reduced to the level of farce in an astonishing 20-minute spell when Pasquale Bruno, David Weir, Neil Pointon and Paul Ritchie were all given their marching orders by referee Gerry Evans.
One more Hearts' dismissal should have caused the game to be abandoned, although the Tynecastle club have revealed they would have conceded the points if that had happened.
Now that the dust has settled though, chairman Chris Robinson is backing his sinning stars - dubbed the 'Ibrox Four' - and has appealed against the red cards.
One of the chief accusations from the Hearts' camp is that Rangers' striker Gordon Durie, whose clash with Weir sparked most of the mayhem, is a cheat.
Hearts claim the Scotland international faked injury and was not head-butted in an incident between the pair.