Hearts and Paul Hartley, hope and despair

Last week’s Tynecastle tribulation surrounded member two of the Riccarton Three - Paul Hartley - for his part in the episode which was ultimately the beginning of the end for Steven Pressley's time as Hearts captain, talisman and all-round superhero.

I refer to that hijacked press conference when Hartley sat alongside and in support of Elvis as he delivered his verdict on the mess inside Heart of Midlothian FC. For his part, then, he was to turn up at a disciplinary hearing last Thursday with the infamous Pedro Lopez - now considered the 'spear with which Vlad does his impaling'.

Information is as yet, and typically, unclear at the moment. It is also unclear as to when information will ever be clear again on this or any other matter inside Tynecastle. Regardless of anything Vladimir Romanov has done or not done, caused or otherwise, one thing is for sure. He has done a very good job of keeping people quiet after they leave the club.

John Robertson, George Burley, George Foulkes, Phil Anderton, Graham Rix, Rudi Skacel - all of have left Hearts under a cloud of varying degrees of the 'dark, grey and stormy' variety. None, however, has produced much in the way of thunder on or since his departure. It is yet another unanswered question - how has Romanov managed that?

Without the facts we can all just take a flight of fancy and imagine the final meetings between Vladand the vacating subordinate to be like that scene from Reservoir Dogs - 'Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am...'.

The only ex-Vlad employee that I can recall who has really opened up and spilled the beans is Lee Johnson. And I guess Vlad just didn't think he was significant enough to merit the imposition of the gagging order.

I fully expected Hartley to receive a severe wrist-slap for his 'outrageous' behaviour, (perhaps a fine?) and for him to immediately follow this up with a transfer request. Off in January to whoever would pay any amount of cash for him. That may still come to pass and the transfer request may already be under Vlad's nose. But you just don't know.

When Hartley finally came on after an hour or so against Aberdeen on Saturday he bust a gut and drove the team on - and genuinely wanted to be there and to succeed. He single-handedly lifted a dour, disappointing game and the team and he managed to wake the Hearts support up as well. No mean feat, that, since we seemed in a deep slumber. Even the perpetual haranging from a ‘far too pleased with themselves’ Red Ultras failed to goad the Tynecastle faithful into any response other than a dismal rendition of ‘‘Your no famous any more’’.

Self-satisfied and loud and perpetual they may have been, but they lacked a bit in humour, the best they could muster being 'Your going down in a Russian submarine' - sung obviously to the tune of Yellow Submarine. I guess Aberdeen really is a jocular backwater.

Unlike the week before I had no idea what to expect from Hearts or the game. I found out that Hartley was on the bench as I was parking the car on the way to the game. This surprised me not a jot and I was not too disappointed, either - last week when he was suspended we played Julienne Brellier and Bruno Aguiar as the central pairing in the middle of the park; it worked quite well so I could see why we would go that way again.

But when I heard that Brellier was injured and Marius Zaliukas was playing in midfield instead of Hartley, my immediate reaction was: ‘That’s it, we are beat’. So again we play people out of position rather than play the natural replacement; it just makes us want to scream.
The game started and immediately died on its feet. Hearts were guilty of playing the long ball up to Edgaras Jankauskas far too often - it is dreadful to watch week after week.

Aberdeen looked quietly confident, playing pretty much within themselves, compact and assured as you would expect from a team who are on a good run, winning their away games with as much regularity as their home games. That said the chances, albeit only a few of them, were equally spread between the two teams.

The second half started marginally better for Hearts, with a little more composure in possession and a little more flair going forward. But the game had that 0-0 tag written all over it.

Hearts needed a shot in the arm and it came with a knock to Zaliukas, who at best just looks completely anonymous in midfield. He was replaced by Hartley to a standing ovation and much expectation. The team were immediately lifted by this and a period of dominance began for the home team.

A few chances came along, the best being a Hartley effort low to the keeper’s right and then a ball to the back post that Velicka really should have buried instead of sclaffing wide. Hartley then had the ball in the back of the net, but the effort was chalked off for offside.

Aberdeen were never out of the game, however, and continued to gain corners - but it was against the run of play that they got their winner. A throw-in from the left was played to Scott Severin, who was given too much time to dispatch a shot low to Craig Gordon's left. The Hearts keeper parried the ball, but only out to Steve Lovell, who finished easily. The defence was nowhere - another shocking goal to lose.

There were some fairly dismal attempts by Hearts to get something out of the game but it was clear nothing would come of it. In the end we have to accept the defeat for not taking our chances and for some more dreadful defensive lapses.