Pressley penalty breaks Aberdeen

STUART BATHGATE
AT TYNECASTLE

HEARTS 1 Pressley (Pen 80)
ABERDEEN 0
Referee: S Dougal. Attendance: 11,236.

A PENALTY ten minutes from time by Steven Pressley secured the points for Hearts last night, and lifted them five points clear of Dunfermline in the race for third place. Aberdeen were commendably competitive, and had a few scoring opportunities of their own, but over the piece the home side just about deserved the win.

Craig Levein’s team could, all the same, have wrapped up the points much earlier. Easily the dominant team for the bulk of the first half, they faded in the middle period of the game before rallying late on.

"Aberdeen defended very well, but we did just enough to win," was Levein’s verdict. "Sometimes if you get a goal early on you can run out convincing winners, but we just couldn’t land that punch to knock them down. Later on Aberdeen had a couple of opportunities and we could have lost a goal, which would have been a bit harsh."

On a night when chants in support of the team intermingled with those directed at Hearts chief executive, the home side maintained their composure well, especially when the pressure mounted as the game went on without a goal. Pressley, as ever, epitomised that coolness, and afterwards paid tribute to the support.

"The fans have remained very supportive of the side," he said. "Obviously there are off-field problems which have yet to be resolved, but throughout it the supporters have been behind the team."

Levein kept to his promise to make minimal changes from the team which went out of the Scottish Cup four days earlier; in fact making only one alteration from the starting line-up against Celtic. Joe Hamill came in for Neil MacFarlane, giving Hearts a midfield line-up which looked more balanced.

Hamill began wide left - the position occupied not so long ago by Jean-Louis Valois - with Robert Sloan wide right. Paul Hartley and Phil Stamp were paired in the middle, a position in which the latter tends to be more influential than in the wide berth which his coach has often preferred him to play in. The balance of the side might have been affected when first Alan Maybury and then Sloan succumbed to injuries and had to be replaced, but Hearts persevered and got their reward with what was their third penalty claim.

The spot-kick decision by referee Stuart Dougal was not disputed by Aberdeen boss Steve Paterson, who was nonetheless disappointed that his team had taken nothing from the match. "I thought going into the latter stages it was looking like a 0-0," he said.

"In the second half we gave as good as we got, but they got a wee break where it mattered. In the end I was disappointed to lose given the effort the players put in.

"We put a lot of effort in and David Preece never had to make that many saves, so we feel we should have got more from the game.

"We have no complaints about the penalty, the boys are saying he [Zander Diamond] did catch him."

Aberdeen, for whom Paul Sheerin and Scott Muirhead replaced the injured Scott Booth and the suspended Steve Tosh, are now just seven points clear of bottom club Partick Thistle. On this form, though, they could conceivably climb a couple of places rather than being dragged into what may in any case be only a hypothetical fight to escape relegation.

Paterson’s side began the match second bottom of the Premierleague but with their morale in decent repair, having reached the cup quarter-finals with a thumping victory over Falkirk last Saturday and performed creditably in recent league encounters.

It was that recent form which had led Levein to insist that, despite Hearts having won this season’s two previous games between the sides without conceding a goal, the home side would by no means have things all their own way last night. Nevertheless, it was Hearts who had by far the better of the opening exchanges, forcing a couple of corners in the first three minutes and also having the first attempt on goal - a volley from Patrick Kisnorbo which was about a yard too high to trouble David Preece.

Hearts remained on top for most of the first half, but as the interval approached without a goal, a certain anxiety crept into their play, and the sense of frustration increased when, four minutes from the break, Hartley was bundled over in the box by Russell Anderson. The Aberdeen defender failed to get a touch on the ball, but Dougal was unimpressed by Hartley’s tumble and waved play on.

After the break Hearts had a second, less convincing, penalty claim turned down when Anderson tangled with De Vries, who probably made too much of his fall. Moments later a Hamill free-kick was nudged by Wyness into the path of Kisnorbo, whose shot was tipped wide by Preece.

At the other end, David Zdrilic had Aberdeen’s best effort when his shot flashed just past Craig Gordon’s left-hand post. It was a reminder that the outcome was still in the balance, but the matter was tipped decisively in Hearts’ favour in the 80th minute.

This time Dougal was convinced when De Vries went down in the box, after he appeared to be tripped by Diamond after getting past the Aberdeen player and his colleague Chris Clark. The home support’s relief was palpable when Pressley stroked the ball into the net.

Hearts: Gordon, Maybury (Neilson half-time), Webster, Pressley, Kisnorbo, Sloan, Stamp, Hartley, Hamill (Kirk 65), Wyness (MacFarlane 71), De Vries. Subs not used: Moilanen, McKenna.

Aberdeen: Preece, McNaughton, Anderson, Diamond, Muirhead, Clark, Sheerin, Heikkinen, Morrison, Heikkinen (Foster 87), Hinds (Prunty 83), Zdrilic. Subs not used: Esson, McGuire, Souter.

Taken from the Scotsman