CHEAT MIKO FACES RAP

Scorer: HEARTS: Nade

By Scott Davie

JAMBOS stand-in gaffer Stevie Frail is ready to brand Saulius Mikoliunas a cheat if TV proves the Lithuanian conman was up to his old tricks yesterday.

The midfielder was booked by referee Willie Collum for diving under a penalty box challenge from Dons ace Jeffery de Visscher, below, in 79 minutes. It was a flashback to Hampden last September when Miko star had Scotland fans raging after conning his way to a spot-kick.

It earned him a two-match ban in addition to the hatred of the Tartan Army and that incident has dogged the player every since.

That’s why whistler Collum refused to give the Hearts man the benefit of the doubt here and Frail will withdraw his defence if TV evidence proves the players’ guilt. Mikoliunas can expect a hefty fine to go with the disappointment his gaffer will feel if his trust has been misplaced in someone he has already warned to reform his behaviour.

Frail said: “I will have a look at the decision he was booked for but from where I am there was contact. I am hoping there was contact and he’s not gone down.

“If he has gone down then we will have a serious look at it as I have made him very aware of the situation and how decisions might go against him. I will let you decide if it was victimisation or not.”

Jambos skipper Christophe Berra added: “I was so far away I didn’t see it. We know he’s got a reputation after the Scotland game and things might go against him, but he’s going to have to learn from that.

“But he’s a good lad and if he says it was a penalty then I believe him. I will back him to the hilt.”

All the controversy threatened to take the gloss off a hard-fought victory that keeps Hearts’ league revival under Frail on track after winning back-to-back league games for the first time since October.

It took a defensive blunder on his Dons debut by Stuart Duff to send them on their way — but the visitors created the bulk of the clear-cut chances in a fiercely contested match.

Duff by name, Duff by nature as the recent signing from Dundee United hit his pass straight to Hearts hitman Christian Nade, below, who raced clear before lashing the ball behind Jamie Langfield. That goal in 55 minutes was the big Frenchman’s first since scoring in a 4-1 win against Aberdeen at Tynecastle in November and made up for his bad miss early on.

Nade slashed a shot well wide of the far post from an acute angle in the second minute, while Andrius Velicka squandered two guilt-edged chances in a frantic first-half.

Opening period injuries to Derek Young and Scott Severin forced both off early and the disruption meant Aberdeen’s fluency deserted them for once at home.

Hearts played effectively on the counter with Langfield keeping them in the game with a string of important blocks to deny Velicka and subs Ricardas Beniusis and Audrius Ksanavicius.

The visitors claimed in vain for a penalty when Mikoliunas hit the deck and earned a booking for his trouble while the Dons nearly rescued a point at the death. Richard Foster’s fizzing drive from 25 yards looked in until Steve Banks sprawled low to his right to claw the ball to safety for a corner.

Aberdeen also had a goal chalked off for offside against Lee Miller as he clipped in De Visscher’s cross from the right on a day when their luck was out. That guaranteed the Dons’ first home defeat in 14 games since Motherwell’s victory at Pittodrie last September and made it seven points out of nine surrendered to the Jambos this season.

Boost

Crucially for Frail it took Hearts to within six points of their North-east rivals, and kept their SPL hopes for a top three finish alive. It also provided the perfect boost for the CIS Cup semi-final against Rangers on Wednesday.

Frail said: “It’s a great three points for us as it’s a tough place to come and if we had lost I don’t think we would have been able to catch them.

“Now we are still in the fight for third place after slumping to a place in the table that wasn’t good to look at. Now we’re going in the right direction. We must keep that going as we we all want to finish high enough to get us back into Europe next season.

“You must give the players the credit for the way things are turning around now, they have responded to the things I asked from them. The players have shown with their level of commitment they want to do well for the club and they have a great chance to do that against Rangers now.

“It is a massive game because everyone wants to get into a cup final and if that happens it will have a positive knock-on for our league form as well.”

Dons ace Severin is expected to recover from the dead leg he suffered in time to play against Dundee United in Tuesday’s CIS Cup semi-final.

But consecutive league defeats is not the way gaffer Jimmy Calderwood wanted to approach the game even if he reckons Nade got lucky with the winner as it was down to his laziness. Caldo claimed: “Nade was lucky and lazy when he got the goal. If he had been my player I wouldn’t have been happy with him.

“We always want our defence to push up and Nade didn’t track back so he found himself in the right place at the right time when Duff passed it back to the keeper. Having the goal chalked off for offside summed up our day, as did losing so many key men with injuries, but I hope they will all be fit for United as it’s massive game for this club.”

ABERDEEN: Langfield, McNamara, Diamond, Considine, Foster, De Visscher, Nicholson, Severin (Duff 33), Young (Maguire 28), Miller, Jamie Smith (Lovell 69). Subs not used: Soutar, Bus, Mackie, Jon Smith.
HEARTS: Banks, Neilson, Berra, Karipidis, Goncalves, Mikoliunas (McCann 89), Jonsson, Stewart, Nade (Ksanavicius 66), Velicka (Beniusis 75) Palazuelos. Subs not used: Basso, Wallace,Thomson, McCann, Ivaskevicius.