Draw gives Rix heart after lethargic start

Ewan Murray at Pittodrie
Monday November 21, 2005
The Guardian

Graham Rix's career as first-team coach at Hearts may have got off to a low-key start yesterday but the former Portsmouth and Oxford manager was pleased with the fighting spirit shown by his new players, who recovered from a sluggish start to salvage a point from a traditionally tricky venue. Hearts now sit two points behind Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premierleague (SPL) after Rudi Skacel matched Jamie Smith's early strike for Aberdeen.

Rix, whose arrival in Edinburgh has been surrounded by controversy because of his imprisonment in 1999 for unlawful sex with a 15-year-old, said afterwards: "Our first-half performance is a difficult one to explain. Maybe all that has gone on over the past 10 days affected the players, but we were a lot better in the second half. I'm glad the first game is over and out of the way, without a doubt.

"We controlled a lot of the second half and, although I'd liked to have won, there are plenty of positives to take out of the game."

Rix received a warm welcome from a small group of Hearts supporters at Pittodrie's main entrance on arriving for his first match in charge, and his counterpart in the home dug-out, Jimmy Calderwood, even gave him a hug as the teams left the tunnel prior to kick-off. Both acts represented rare signals of warmth towards a man who has been widely castigated, not least by some followers of his own club, since his move to Tynecastle.

The Hearts first-team coach had been adamant before the match that his players should focus on football rather than off-field matters, but they appeared to neglect that message after only 12 minutes when Smith was afforded time and space to shoot past Craig Gordon from 15 yards.

Hearts have started the vast majority of their games this term with a verve which has been unmatched in the SPL, but they were lethargic and wasteful during the early stages of their first visit of the season to Pittodrie. Smith, who scored a last-minute winner against Rangers in the Dons' sole highlight of a disappointing campaign to date, was a constant menace to the visitors' defence during the opening 45 minutes, not least because the mercurial Skacel, the league's top goalscorer, failed to track many of the former Celtic player's runs from midfield.

It was as poor a 45 minutes as Hearts had returned all season, and a worrying sign for the expectant travelling support. Rix would have had clear justification for administering a stern half-time team talk, and if he did it appeared to do the trick. Michal Pospisil, who had been indifferent in attack, was withdrawn and replaced by the young Calum Elliot as Hearts tried to deny Aberdeen their fifth league win of the season. And Skacel duly supplied his 11th goal of the SPL season when his 25-yard half-volley dipped over the stranded Ryan Esson, although that was due in no small part to a deflection off the unfortunate Gary Dempsey.

Rix joined his coaching staff of John McGlynn and Valdas Ivanauskas, the former FBK Kaunas manager, in dancing with delight after the goal, merited on the balance of second-half play. Steven Pressley should have handed Rix a debut victory but he blazed the ball over after Esson had fumbled a Skacel drive. The visiting players seemed content with a share of the points and their first-team coach had a right to share that emotion. "I said to Graham after the game, 'Welcome to Scotland'," said Calderwood. "That was a typical Scottish game, played like a cup tie. It would have been an injustice if we hadn't got at least a point, but Hearts are due credit for coming back well."

Man of the match: Steven Pressley (Hearts)

Taken from the Guardian/Observer