McCann pushes his cap claims

ken gallagher

18 Aug 1997

Hearts 4, Aberdeen 1

There seems little doubt after this game that, of these two ambitious clubs, Hearts are the more likely to be challenging at the top of the premier division this season.


Both missed out on a European place last time round - though nowadays, as clubs flop in the various tournaments, that may be a blessing.

Still, the managers and the players won't see it that way and Hearts manager Jim Jefferies will already be setting his sights on the top of the table, while Aberdeen's Roy Aitken must be puzzling as to what exactly went wrong with the team he invested heavily in during the summer.

Certainly, there was a shell-shocked air about Aitken as he reflected on the defeat, saying: ''I was delighted with the way we started the game and obviously with the early goal.

Everything was fine until we lost the penalty and, suddenly, after being in front, we were 3-1 behind.

We just did not handle things well then at all.

''We were not good enough when things started to go against us.

The way we played simply lifted their players and their fans and we could not recover, even though we had a little bit of a flurry at the beginning of the second half.

'' That 'flurry' was never going to be enough against a Hearts team which played with a verve and a purpose which Aberdeen could not match.

Indeed, Jefferies admitted that he had hoped the first half would go on for ever.

Little wonder, because it was in a six-minute spell approaching half-time that his side scored three goals and might even have scored more.

The style with which they set about the job was what pleased Jefferies and the Tynecastle support.

After Mike Newell, one of Aberdeen's close season signings, had finished off a deep Joe Miller cross in just 13 minutes, Hearts knew they had to recover, and they did so through the clever promptings of Steve Fulton and the swift, gloriously old-fashioned wing play of Neil McCann.

Both players seem to have benefited from new fitness regimes, with Fulton seeming to last the game better, while McCann's pace has improved through sprint training during the pre-season.

Jefferies pointed out: ''I think Neil's pace troubled them, he was brought down for the penalty which brought us back into the game and he might have had another award earlier when he went down in the box.

We had him doing special sprint training and we have also been trying to increase the ratio of good crosses he gets into the area.

There are times when he still wastes balls, but the number of good ones into the danger zone is increasing.

''If he continues to show improvement in that department then maybe he would be ready for the international team.

'' On this form - and we all know that wingers can be inconsistent - then Scotland manager Craig Brown could do worse than ask McCann to take on the role which Pat Nevin performed.

McCann gives a team width, has pace which can carry him round defenders and the manner in which he consistently damaged Russell Anderson, seen as one of our better full back prospects, suggests he is ready for the breakthrough.

He remains uncertain of that himself, saying: ''It's a target for me to get into the Scotland squad, especially in a World Cup year, but I know I have to keep on improving if I am to get an opportunity.

I decided early in the game that I was going to run at Russell Anderson and when I got clear of him the first time it lifted my confidence.

'' Any confidence Aberdeen had - and they seemed to display too much of that before the game when their English striker, Dean Windass, wrote off Hearts as top-of-the-table material - evaporated when John Robertson scored with the penalty.

Then came the follow-up first-half goals from Steve Fulton and Colin Cameron and the late strike from Thomas Flogel.

By then, Aberdeen's dejection was complete with Brian O'Neil ordered off for a tackle on Stephane Adam quarter of an hour from the end.

Referee George Clyde judged the ex-Celt to be the last man - but, for me, Toni Kombouare was behind O'Neil and a caution would have sufficed.

Next league games: Hearts - v Dunfermline(a).

Aberdeen - v Motherwell (a).