Hartley realises Hearts' dream

Hearts (0) 1 Aberdeen (0) 0

History was made at Tynecastle last night as Hearts became the first team outside the Old Firm to qualify for the Champions League. The issue hung on the hand flung up by Zander Diamond underneath the Aberdeen crossbar to hinder a corner kick eight minutes after the interval.

Paul Hartley, the epitome of leadership during a turbulent season at Tynecastle, dispatched the resultant penalty with brio to confound Aberdeen. Hartley's coolness under pressure was also of great consequence to Gretna, Hearts' opponents in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park a week on Saturday.

The second division champions will now play in the Uefa Cup, crowning a romantic tale the equal of that of the Tynecastle side.

The novel features that have been brought by Hearts to the Scottish game were vividly in evidence - a full house at Tynecastle and another slew of headline statements from the club's forceful owner, Vladimir Romanov. The team-sheet was eagerly scanned to see whether or not Hearts would field Rudi Skacel, whose loan deal from Marseille had been converted into a two-year contract as a Hearts player.

Skacel was indeed included, but even as that was confirmed, Romanov was revealing startling news. "Skacel is thinking about moving to England - to the Premier League," he said. "His agent has asked us to terminate his contract to allow him to go to another club for £1 million."

However, what mattered most to the Hearts faithful was the extension of their recent momentum and they greeted their team's early thrusts with full-blooded passion. In such circumstances it was easy to overlook several factors likely to influence Aberdeen's contribution. The Dons, of course, had a Uefa Cup place in their sights. Moreover, Aberdeen won at Tynecastle in February.

Richie Byrne was deployed deeper than usual at left back to accommodate Kevin McNaughton pushing into midfield, where his role was to stalk Paul Hartley. It also became evident that Aberdeen would play on the counter, knocking long balls in an attempt to catch Hearts on the turn.

The difficulty with this tactic was that the Aberdeen front pair of Stevie Crawford and Steve Lovell were rarely able to hold possession long enough to bring their midfield into play, a problem exacerbated when Lovell - who had the ball in the net only to be ruled offside - limped off to be replaced by Darren Mackie.

Hearts had the best of the first-half chances, such as they were, and Deividas Cesnauskis passed up a fine chance for the opener when he latched on to an error by the Aberdeen goalkeeper, Jamie Langfield, but pushed his close-range drive wide of the far post. Half-time arrived scoreless, to clear murmurs of apprehension among the Hearts support.

Their fears were assuaged seven minutes after the interval from a corner kick on the Hearts right, headed on by Roman Bednar and handled blatantly near the back post by Diamond. The Hearts support was incensed that Stuart Dougal administered only a caution for what they saw as prevention of a clear goalscoring chance, but the referee evidently believed that the ball was not going into the net and not certain to reach another maroon jersey.

Hartley stepped forward -who more fitting? - to take a kick on which so much was likely to depend and with his usual decisiveness he thrashed it explosively past Langfield. Even with this relief, the result was by no means assured, but Hearts' cause was greatly aided when Scott Severin, their former player, careered into a reckless challenge on Aguiar for which he was sent off.

Jimmy Calderwood's characteristic refusal to concede anything in adversity meant that Aberdeen continued to push forward into the dying, edgy moments of a momentous contest.

Match details

Hearts (4-4-2): Gordon; Neilson, Pressley, Tall, Fyssas; Censauskis, Hartley, Aguiar (Brellier 90), Skacel (Mikoliunas 66); Jankauskas, Bednar (Pospisil 88).
Subs: Banks (g), Berra, Wallace, Barasa.
Booked: Aguiar.
Aberdeen (4-4-2): Langfield; Diamond (Dempsey 66), Severin, Andreson, Byrne; Smith, Nicholson, McNaughton, Foster; Lovell (Mackie 33), Crawford.
Subs: Esson (g), Considine, Macaulay, Maguire, Griffin.
Booked: Diamond, Mackie.
Sent off: Severin.
Referee: S Dougal.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk