Hearts kids in mission impossible

Published Date: 10 January 2010
By Tom English at Pittodrie
MARK McGhee would have slept well last night. Perhaps he's sleeping still.

The Aberdeen manager admitted in the wake of this comfortable victory that he'd had a turbulent kip the night before, tossing and turning and waking every few hours, sweating on the fitness of his back four. He had grave reservations about the health of two of his defenders, having already lost a third, Andrew Considine, in training on Friday. "I was hoping for snow," McGhee smiled. "I was wanting the game called off."

The duo who caused him to fret – Charlie Mulgrew and Maurice Ross – both made it in the end. Alas, Csaba Laszlo wasn't so lucky. The poor guy has an injury list so severe – Lee Wallace, Andrew Driver, Jose Goncalves, Ruben Palazuelos and Calum Elliot among them – that he pressed a pile of kids into action yesterday, giving a debut to the teenage Australian left-back Rocky Visconte. Laszlo practically wept in the aftermath. "The senior players tried to keep everything together but we cannot compensate for the absence of our quality players," he said. "I'm not angry about the young guys. They must learn, but they don't have time. This is very painful. You know the solution, but you can't do nothing."

Laszlo's lament is well-rehearsed. His poor mouth can be a little tiresome, though. He fielded two young strikers yesterday yet he could have put Christian Nade in there instead if he wanted. To go on about the lack of experience when you've got an old hand, albeit not a very good one, sat on the bench is a little curious. "You know this film with Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible?" he asked. "I try to make it possible. So long as I feel I have the power (at Hearts], I am positive. But I'm sorry for the fans who came here in huge numbers in bad weather."

Things slowly warmed, thankfully, after a dreary beginning to this cup tie. And it was the Dons who lit the fire. To their credit, even when things were grim early on they had more snap about them than Hearts and all of the goal threat came from them. When they scored their opener, justice was done, and the fact that it was the goal-starved Darren Mackie who got it was only right and proper. He was lively all day and was at the root of most of the opportunities they created.

The first of them wasn't easy, but it wasn't impossible either, Mackie attempting to lob Marian Kello after Ismael Bouzid came over all bewildered when trying to deal with a long punt forward. Mackie did his best to capitalise, but didn't hit the mark. Aberdeen thought they deserved a penalty midway through the first half, but got no joy there either. Well, to clarify it, Mark Kerr thought they deserved a penalty. The rest of them weren't too sure – or too angry – about referee Steve Conroy adjudging that Visconte took Kerr down a yard outside the box rather than a yard inside. "It was borderline," said the Australian, "but definitely no penalty."

Hearts weren't at the races as an attacking force and survived as long as they did only because of an outstanding save from Kello from a Mackie header. No faulting the striker, he met Derek Young's cross with a twist of his bonce and sent a powerful effort low to Kello's left, but the keeper beat it away brilliantly. "I was thinking, 'Here we go again'," said the striker.

Mackie, the recurring theme of this cup tie, had another moment early in the second half but couldn't turn in a Maurice Ross cross, the ball getting trapped under his feet with the goal just spitting distance away. There are games where a side misses chances and then gets hit by a sucker punch as punishment for their profligacy. To be honest, this never looked like one of those. Aberdeen kept pressing forward and kept pressurising Hearts and they got their reward on the hour-mark.

A well-worked goal it was, too. Peter Pawlett is a little diamond in the middle for Aberdeen. When he matures, he's going to be some player, as McGhee has pointed out more than once. We saw him at his best in the build-up to Mackie's goal. He got possession in the centre and ran hard into the open country ahead of him, sizing up his options before sliding a gorgeous ball through to Lee Miller outside him. Miller beat the advancing Kello to the ball and squared it for Mackie to knock in.

Hearts' defence was ripped asunder, their young men exposed. Laszlo turned away in dejection as Mackie whooped it up. "Darren comes under pressure from the fans, so I was delighted for him," said McGhee. When told it been over a year and a half since his last goal in his own stadium, Mackie answered deadpan: "Aye, I knew it had been a while."

The Dons tied the Hearts youngsters in knots again before the end. Chris Maguire came on as a replacement and caused Hearts significant trouble in his time on the field, not least when he got himself free on the right and put in a low ball that eluded every Hearts defender, but not the waiting Miller. Pittodrie seemed to enjoy watching the final nail being hammered in.

Taken from the Scotsman