Andy Halliday has opened up on the angry exchanges between his Hearts teammates and Almeria's players during a recent friendly.

Footage emerged of Hearts and Almeria players brawling during a mid-season bounce game in Spain. 

With the Jambos down 1-0 to the La Liga outfit on December 4, Alex Cochrane kicked the ball away from his opponent as one of the Spanish players went to take a free kick.

This incited trouble though, as in retaliation, an Almeria player grabbed Cochrane's neck and pushed him away, before most other players got involved to break up the bust-up.

Neilson pulled his players off the park as a result, as the game was abandoned.

Now, speaking to Open Goal, Halliday has delivered more detail on what happened.

The Hearts player said: "The ref gave no fouls for any tackles for about 20 minutes. The boy's come up and elbowed Alex, didn't give a foul, played on.

"Alex has got tight with one of those wee petulant ones where he's kicked it away. Their centre half's come flying over and shoved him to the deck."

Fellow Jambos star Lawrence Shankland said Neilson's side laughed about the incident in the changing rooms.

Shankland added: “We were just laughing when we got back to the dressing room. With the initial incident with Alex, if that's where it stopped then nothing would have been made about it.

"It was the boy's reaction to that by charging over and sort of pushing Alex by the throat. You can't really have that sort of thing happening to your team-mate so everyone rushes over to sort it out. It was done after that.

READ MORE: Rangers & Celtic player values ranked in Scottish Premiership MVP list

Glasgow Times:

At The Herald and Times we know the importance of reaching you where it's convenient, which is why we've engaged top sportswriter James Morgan to bring you an irreverent daily update on what's happening in the world of sport. Be it football, golf, rugby, cricket or something more exotic, James will tread where the best stories take him. To get this bespoke piece sent directly to your email inbox for free every day at 5pm, simply take 5 seconds to type in your email here. It's that simple!