RIX LAYS IT ON LINE FOR HUMBLED HEARTS

By Ronnie Esplin, PA Sport

Hearts head coach Graham Rix insists lack of discipline rather than another series of changes to his team led to their 2-1 defeat against Aberdeen in the Bank of Scotland Premier League clash at Tynecastle.

The Gorgie club have been in turmoil all week after it was reported that majority owner Vladimir Romanov had picked the side for the game against Dundee United on Tuesday, an allegation which gained credence when the Jambos showed six changes for their 1-1 draw at Tannadice.

Rix claimed he had regained control of first-team matters for the visit of the Dons and this time the home side showed a further four changes.

Despite striker Calum Elliot firing the Jambos into a ninth-minute lead it was only a sterling display by keeper Craig Gordon which kept the Dons at bay until the 68th minute when luckless skipper Steven Pressley put through his own goal trying to block a Scott Severin cross.

And with three minutes to go, and the Edinburgh men wilting, Chris Clark drove a shot from the edge of the box which deflected off Paul Hartley to almost certainly end

Hearts' title aspirations.

Rix, however, refuted claims that his side had paid dearly for a lack of consistency in team selection.

He said: "I wouldn't say it was the perfect start but we did okay for the first 25 minutes.

"We got a lot of success in wide areas with little two versus one situations but then we stopped doing what had got us that success.

"One of the words I wrote on the board at the team meeting was 'discipline' and that means keep doing things that are bringing you success. So that disappointed me.

"They started to get more in the game towards the end of the first half and then in the second half? I'm sure you can describe it more eloquently than me.

"We had five, six, seven, players off the pace and you can't have that. You can hardly afford one off the pace far less six or seven.

"But I hope it's a blip and we get a reaction and it's up to me that we are ready for Motherwell and firing on all cylinders."

Aberdeen goal hero Clark claims manager Jimmy Calderwood's admission of his own tactical inadequacies helped the Dons to their first win at Tynecastle in seven years.

The visitors started in a 3-5-2 formation which they struggled to adapt to and there was no real surprise when Elliot gave Hearts the lead.

The visitors steadied themselves but it was only after a reshuffle at the break did Aberdeen begin to take control.

Ferne Snoyl replayed Kyle Macaulay and Clark pushed up into midfield to make a 4-4-2

and after Steven Pressley scored an own goal there was only going to be one winner.

The reinvigorated Pittodrie men were not for settling for the draw and with three minutes to go Clark's deflected shot gave them a deserved winner.

Afterwards Clark said: "We were a bit disorganised at the start and we lost a soft goal similar to last week where maybe I should have cut out the cross.

"Rudi Skacel was a handful in the first half but we sorted things out.

"We knew we had to keep going, the manager changed things around at half-time and Ferne made a big impact. We settled down and played some good football. "

Taken from sportinglife.com