A light in the north

THERE WAS a team people are beginning to take seriously at Tynecastle yesterday - and needless to say it wasn't Hearts. Aberdeen have neither strength in depth nor the money to do anything about it in the transfer window, yet this morning they are second in the league and teasing themselves about the prospect of stealing a Champions League place. At the very least they are cocky about their chances of giving Rangers a bloody nose at Pittodrie on Saturday.

It added hugely to the merriment of their boisterous support that Hearts were accomplices in their own defeat yesterday. Steve Lovell's winner came four minutes from the end but Aberdeen received their Christmas present 45 minutes before kick-off when Hearts submitted a team-sheet that confirmed their most influential outfield player, Paul Hartley, was on the bench. The omission was the talk of Tynecastle; more evidence that the Lithuanians in charge of the club cannot make sound football judgments.

Hartley's lively play as a late substitute confirmed what the team had been missing. Afterwards Valdas Ivanauskas' efforts to explain Hartley's relegation to the bench were excruciating. Avoiding eye contact, pausing, seeming to treat every question with contempt and giving answers that were virtually monosyllabic - his command of English seems to deteriorate when there is a question he doesn't like - Ivanauskas could come up with nothing better than the explanation that leaving Hartley out had been "a tactic" which had nothing to do with the midfielder's disciplinary hearing last Thursday.
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It isn't worth taking a note of anything Ivanauskas has to say these days.

With one succinct comment Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood struck at the heart of the Tynecastle muddle. "Hearts are a better team when Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley are playing," he said. Precisely.

"I was happy to see the team sheet and that Paul Hartley was on the bench. The last time we came here was the night Hearts qualified for the Champions League. It was a bit different today and that just shows you how things can go at a club. Tynecastle is a difficult place to come even with Hearts' troubles and we don't have a good record here."

This was the first game under Craig Gordon's permanent captaincy. The circus never never ends: a disciplinary hearing awaits him on Tuesday for the impertinence of sitting with Hartley and Pressley at the October press conference at which the former captain effectively talked towards dismissal.

"I have no idea what will happen, no-one ever does," said Gordon. "Paul has been very quiet about what happened at his, he has not been willing to discuss what happened with anyone. I am not worried about what will happen. It is something that they see as the right way to go. I will go and listen to what they have to say.

"I spoke to Steven Pressley before I was offered the captaincy. Myself and Paul spoke to him and it was Steven who persuaded us that if either of us was offered the captaincy we should take it. He felt the captaincy should remain with a Scottish player."

At least Hearts had the grace not to leave Pressley hanging from one of the Tynecastle floodlights. That had been his fate last weekend when a banner carrying his picture was left flapping upside down, apparently a victim of the winds although all the other Hearts legends' banners were unaffected. Yesterday, Pressley was restored to his rightful place, if only in that sense.

Chairman Roman Romanov's message in the match programme lacked the menace of the previous week, when his 12-word statement about pain, cure and diagnosis had seemed typically half-baked and sinister. The message was more conventional yesterday although the theme was similar. "We will not be diverted from delivering success for Hearts," wrote Romanov. "Short-term criticism and unpopularity are often part of the price we have to pay in order to achieve long-term success."

He urged supporters and critics alike to judge Hearts at the end of the season.

The Romanovs are in no position to make such a request of their supporters. The hesitant, clumsy central defending of Ibrahim Tall and Jose Goncalves yesterday was symptomatic of how a team will inevitably deteriorate when an intolerant, confrontational attitude is taken towards its better players. There cannot be a Hearts supporter who would rather have Tall and Goncalves instead of Pressley and Andy Webster, and yet a stance was taken with the latter pair which accelerated both of them out of Tynecastle. Aberdeen quickly sensed Hearts' frailties and sent through balls to test them whenever they had possession.

There was a 20-point gap between the clubs at the end of last season but Hearts' decline and Aberdeen's improvement has levelled them. To be fair to Hearts, Hartley's replacement, Bruno Aguiar, played well and cleared off the line when Russell Anderson looked sure to score. Aberdeen came close again when Lee Miller was through on Gordon and chipped the ball over the goalkeeper only to see it clip the foot of the post and go wide.

It was a compelling game. Edgaras Jankauskas was quiet although he did have a close-range header cleared off the line and was close again with a low angled shot, which fizzed across the face of Aberdeen's goal. That had stirred a Hearts support which otherwise seemed punch drunk and subdued. Finally they came to life - as did their midfield - when Hartley came off the bench. He immediately gave Hearts some electricity - Andrius Velicka came agonisingly close to converting a chance in front of goal - but they were the ones who suffered the shock.

They were not alive to the danger when Aberdeen took a quick throw in and worked the ball across midfield to Severin. His slashing right foot shot was parried by Gordon but spilled at the feet of Steve Lovell, who couldn't miss.

"We switched off," said Gordon. "You have to look to your defenders to give you a bit of a hand."

In truth Gordon might have done better himself. But when it comes to holding people accountable for what's going wrong at Tynecastle he doesn't merit a mention.

Taken from the Sunday Herald