Wyness penalty lifts Hearts above Dons

JIM BLACK
AT TYNECASTLE

Hearts 1 Wyness (62 pen)
Aberdeen 0

Referee: M McCurry. Attendance: 12,269

THE bitter aftertaste of Noel Whelan’s caustic post-match comments will linger for a while if, as one suspects, the football authorities take the Aberdeen striker to task.

Whelan simply could not contain himself. But the 30-year-old Yorkshireman was ill-advised to give vent to his emotions in quite such a vitriolic fashion.

Blunt speaking may be a laudable characteristic of those who hail from Whelan’s part of the world but there is also a universally embraced adage that states: Least said, soonest mended.

Whelan’s reaction was, to say the least, way over the top. His assertion that Steven Pressley is a "cheat and a coward" will be treated as contemptible by most who know the Hearts captain to be a dedicated professional and thoroughly decent sort. When Whelan declared that Aberdeen had been beaten by a cheat he was asked if he was referring to the assistant referee who had indicated to referee Michael McCurry that Aberdeen’s 84th minute "equaliser" should not stand as two of their number were offside.

Not so. Whelan was referring to his challenge on Pressley that won Hearts a 62nd minute penalty, which was duly converted by Dennis Wyness to ultimately secure a victory and enable the Tynecastle side to leapfrog Aberdeen into fourth place in the SPL.

"For a professional, Pressley’s behaviour was disgusting," insisted Whelan. "There was contact but he played for a penalty. But he did the same thing the whole game. He conned the referee." And he added:

"The referee was terrible all game as well. We got nothing from him. It is hard enough playing against 11 men, never mind 12 when the referee is on their side."

Presumably, the match official will inform his employers of his concern at this assessment in due course. But while Whelan did himself and Aberdeen no favours, the club’s manager, Jimmy Calderwood, who wisely substituted his enraged striker immediately following the controversial incident, was justified in questioning the validity of the decision that cost his team a point.

Michael Hart’s initial effort was touched onto the crossbar by goalkeeper Craig Gordon before the rebound was forced over the line by substitute Steven Craig. But, to Craig’s and Aberdeen’s astonishment, the celebrations were immediately cut short.

Calderwood could not understand why. "I thought if the ball comes back the way you cannot be offside," he said. "But maybe I don’t know the rules. The assistant referee must have been the only man in the stadium who did not think it was a goal."

Counterpart John Robertson revealed that he had been informed that two Aberdeen players were in an offside position before Hart had even chipped the ball forward. But Robbo preferred to highlight a more positive aspect for Hearts.

He pointed out: "We have gone through January unbeaten and suffered only one defeat in out last 11 games. If that constitutes a crisis, we’ll take it."

Pressley, meanwhile, also had his say and was adamant that he had not employed any underhand tactics. "It was a penalty," he said. "I was pushed in the back and went down.

"I did not have a feud with Noel during the game. He obviously did not think that it was a penalty and was unhappy with the decision. But that was the only cross word we had. Personally, I thought we deserved to win. On the subject of Aberdeen’s ‘goal’, when the opposition cut infield we clear our area, and that was what we did.

"Thankfully, Craig got a touch because if the ball had gone straight in it would have been a goal. But it came back off the woodwork and the two Aberdeen players that we left in were automatically offside."

Hearts, watched by prospective new owner Vladimir Romanov, were without Paul Hartley. But the player was not left out of the team because of any fit of pique on the part of his manager following Hartley’s demand for a transfer in the hope that his action would facilitate a move to Celtic.

Hartley, it seems, was injured. It also appears his hopes of signing for the club he supported as a boy have all but disappeared because of Celtic’s refusal to increase their offer to £1 million to meet Hearts’ valuation.

Taken from the Scotsman