Depressing play adds insult to Crabbe injury

IAN PAUL

28 Aug 1989

Hearts 1, Hibernian 0

THIRTEEN minutes is a short time to savour your first derby but that was all the time allotted to young Scott Crabbe, the Hearts forward who was carried off after that period at Tynecastle.

The cynic in me struggles to suggest that the rest of us would have been thrilled to have been transported elsewhere around the same time but such facetiousness does not fit properly into the scenario in which Crabbe escaped serious injury.

Happily for him, the reckless tackle which ought to have earned Gordon Hunter a red card did not cause as much damage as was feared.

The bad bruising left him with a limp but he will be back in action soon, perhaps even in the Skol Cup tie with Celtic at Tynecastle on Wednesday.

His enforced exit was a depressing anti-climax for the 21-year-old who has quickly established his claim to a regular and important part in the team this season after a lengthy apprenticeship at the club.

He has taken to heart the urgings of his manager, Alex MacDonald, who was quite willing to say publicly just how much Crabbe's impovement has meant to him.

"It is a great feeling to see a young player come in and take his chance the way he has."

Crabbe himself had a miserable afternoon as he lay in the dressing room trying to interpret the rise and fall of the noise from the terracings.

"It was murder," he said yesterday.

"But at first the pain was the worst thing.

I have never felt pain like it and I honestly thought my leg was broken.

I had been looking forward to this game for months."

Crabbe explained that his improvement might have been as a direct result of the extra hard work he put in during the summer when he did without a holiday and spent time with the sprint coaches, as a consequence of which he reckons he is two yards faster than before.

"I knew I had to do something about a first- team place this season after the time I had been here so I decided to have a real go."

Earlier this week he scored a goal against Falkirk and then was chosen for the Scotland Under-21 side, confirmation for him that his diligence is paying off.

It may have been coincidence -- but I doubt it -- that Hearts had looked far more mobile and imaginative with his presence than they were afterwards.

In fact they might have been fortunate to have scored before his injury because they rarely looked like it again.

Their defence was sound throughout, especially captain Dave McPherson who played with a pain-killing injection for the stress fracture he has suffered in his foot after a pre-season training injury.

He will be in his place again on Wednesday.

The goal was scored by the Yugoslav Hrusef Musemic who headed Kirkwood's free kick powerfully over the line.

Hibs manager Alex Miller stared in disbelief as his players committed the very sin of slack marking which he had worked with them all week to prevent.

It can be a frustrating business in the dug-out...

for those who, like Miller, are still allowed in there.

If that was a rare piece of initiative in front of goal by Hearts, Hibs did not manage anything remotely comparable.

Miller's view that his team could have played all day and not scored was accurate enough.

We were of the opinion that they had played all day.

Hearts, too, for that matter, as the drab ball-battering ritual went on under appropriately weeping skies.

There was no complaint about the work rate, of course, but customers deserve something more from premier teams.

The midfield players spent a great deal of time as if watching a ping-pong game in the sky, the ball flashing back and forth above their heads.

"I think there were two moves of three passes or more, one by us and one by Hearts," said Miller.

He did well to spot them.

Unlike other beaten managers, the Hibs man had the honesty to see it as it really was, rather than manufacture excuses.

It was a bad day for him as he had heard earlier in the day of the terrible leg break sustained by his 19-year-old player, Danny Lennon, during the reserve derby at Easter Road.

Miller, who went to see the lad in hospital on Saturday night, was clearly distressed by the injury which was diagnosed as a double fracture of the tibia.

"Anyone who knows him will tell you he is a great boy to have around the place and a very promising player.

Knowing his spirit I am sure he will be back as cheery as ever," said the manager.

We would all echo those sentiments.

HEARTS -- Smith, McLaren, Whittaker, Kirkwood, Levein, McPherson, Colquhoun, Mackay, Musemic, Crabbe, Bannon.

Substitutes -- Kidd, Ferguson.

HIBERNIAN -- Goram, Kane, Sneddon, Cooper, Mitchell, Hunter, Weir, Orr, Houchen, Collins, Findlay.

Substitutes -- Evans, Hamilton.

Referee -- K J Hope (Glasgow).