Caldo Has Pop At Goal Hero Nade

Jan 27 2008 Gordon Waddell At Pittodrie

ABERDEEN 0

HEARTS 1

HEARTS hero Christian Nade ripped three points from Pittodrie for the first time since September - then was branded lazy and lucky by Jimmy Calderwood.

The French frontman pounced on a desperate passback by debut boy Stuart Duff in 55 minutes to slot the only goal.

But Dons boss Caldo reckoned if the Jambo had been putting in a shift and tracking back he would never have been in the position to take the chance.

The result ended a run of 13 straight home games without defeat for Aberdeen - but hoisted Hearts another place up the SPL into ninth with their second win and clean sheet on the trot.

Calderwood sighed: "The lad has been lazy - if he was my player I wouldn't have been happy with him.

"But fair play to him he has hung about and got the break when he should maybe have been getting back.

"I thought Duff was unlucky - if the defenders had been back behind Nade he'd have been fine but the fact is they were pushing up and Nade wasn't chasing back with them.

"I thought the game had 0-0 written all over it. We had a decent spell in the first half but the quality in the final third was poor."

Caldo doesn't have his problems to seek ahead of theCIS Cup semi against Dundee United on Tuesday night.

He lost Derek Young and Scott Severin to injury inside five first-half minutes followed by Jamie Smith after the break. Add that to five other top-team crocks and he's struggling.

Jimmy said: "Derek had a problem with his back before the game and felt it early, Seve had a dead leg and Jamie's hamstring was a bit tight.

"None of them is desperate though and I'm really hoping most will be fine for Tuesday."

Jambos on the other hand will be flying into Rangers on Wednesday.

They went into the game with just one win in 12 since they hosed Dons 4-1 at Tynecastle in November.

The shoots of recovery were there against Hibs last weekend though - and they kept pushing through here.

In fact they really could have bloomed ifNade had taken the chance that fell to him in the second minute.

It was classic counter-attacking football, Ruben Palazuelos' header from his own box finding Andrius Velicka in the centre circle.

The striker wheeled and fed the Frenchman who beat offside to burst clear but slipped his shot wide as Jamie Langfield closed him down.

For long spells after that Dons outplayed Hearts through to the last third without ever hurting them.

Most of their good play seemed to be breaking down at the feet of Dutchman Jeffrey de Visscher and losing Young and Severin blunted their flow even more. But Hearts didn't have the edge to take advantage. Velicka had their top two chances, seeing one cleared by Jackie McNamara after Nade had skinned Zander Diamond and an overhead kick foiled by Langfield on the stroke of half-time.

The big Lithuanian came close again just after the break with a tight angled drive that almost caught Langfield out at his near post.

But just when it looked like defences ruled the roost Hearts were handed the winner on a silver salver.

Duff flashed out a leg at a Christos Karipidis' clearing header just inside his own half. If it was meant as a passback it was miles short and Nade clipped it coolly over Langfield.

After that it was all about Hearts seeing it out. Stevie Frail even sent Nade over to the far side of the pitch before he subbed him just to waste a few more seconds.

Lee Miller slotted home a great Chris Maguire cross only to see the flag go up but apart from that Jambos' defence was sound. They could even have added to their lead late on as subs Kestutis Ksanavicius and Ricardas Beniusis were both denied by top stops.

At the other end only a brilliant Ricky Foster 30-yarder forced Steve Banks into a superb save.

Gutted de Visscher said: "We were hoping to get our confidence up for Tuesday night - I can't understand why we don't manage to put two good performances together."

REF WATCH

WILLIE COLLUM had a decent match. He kept the game flowing when he could and tried to stay on top of some time-wasting from Hearts towards the end as they attempted to cling on to their lead. Good display.

Rating: 7/10.

Taken from the Sunday Mail