Hearts 0-3 Aberdeen: Jambo charge hits the skids

Published Date: 28 January 2010
By BARRY ANDERSON
IT isn't often Aberdeen score three goals away from Pittodrie. It's even more unusual for Hearts to concede three at Tynecastle. Nonetheless, that is what transpired last night as an occasionally fiery evening conspired against the Edinburgh club, resulting in their heaviest domestic defeat of the season.
Injuries to Lee Wallace, Scott Robinson, Ian Black and Ruben Palazuelos compounded a night of despondency for Csaba Laszlo, while visiting manager Mark McGhee had only praise for his players. Goals from Fraser Fyvie, Darren Mackie and Derek Young ended Hearts' seven-game unbeaten league run and offered evidence that Aberdeen do, in fact, know how to score. At kick-off, they had scored a paltry six times away from home all season and McGhee was delighted watching that tally swell.

For Laszlo, it was a truly frustrating evening when his squad's shortcomings were laid bare. He started Ruben Palazuelos at right midfield ahead of Ian Black, but switched the Spaniard to left-back when Wallace departed with a groin complaint after 35 minutes. Palazuelos damaged a knee and made way for Rocky Visconte in the second half, before further injuries to Robinson's knee and Black's back saw Hearts finish the match with nine men having committed all three substitutes to the fray. Medical problems told only half the story, however. Whereas Aberdeen were overall lively, physical and finished clinically, Hearts were let down by some underperforming players and perplexing refereeing decisions. Laszlo was addressed by Terry Christie, the SPL delegate on the night, after the match and left him in no doubt over his feelings on the officials. But he acknowledged that his players fell short of the high standards which saw them secure a 1-1 draw at Ibrox last Saturday.

Fyvie scored on 12 minutes after referee Mike Tumilty ignored a foul on Ruben Palazuelos in the midfield area. Mackie prodded the ball through for the 16-year-old to calmly slot past Marian Kello and become the SPL's youngest-ever scorer.

Aberdeen doubled their advantage from another through pass five minutes after the interval, this time Mark Kerr teeing up Mackie, who beat Kello in a straight race for the ball with the Hearts defence looking disjointed.

The third was rather fortunate, Young's 35-yard free-kick evading Lee Miller in the air and bouncing just inside Kello's left post to everyone's surprise. Even without that slice of luck, Aberdeen were worthy victors.

"It is not just the 3-0 result. In football you have days when everything comes together in a negative way and last night everything came over us," said Laszlo. "We lost a very important game, one which we should not have lost. For the first goal, Ruben had the ball and was tackled and lost the ball.

"From this we lost the goal. Lee Wallace was too deep and everybody moved forward. After we had some interesting decisions (from the referee], especially in the first half. We had opportunities to come back in the game and at half-time I didn't see any problem coming back. The second came from nothing, the third goal was a ball in the front and nobody touched the ball in the whole team. You maybe only get this goal once in ten years.

"To lose three goals and four players in one game is very bad. We don't have a big squad, only young guys as I have said before. The young guys don't have the ability to go the whole season at high speed. They need a rest but we can't give them it. You can damage these children with this. We expect Scott Robinson and Gordon Smith to score goals and win the games for us, but you see the difference. Aberdeen had Miller and Mackie up front, experienced players. We had a good run of seven games and I am sorry for our fans. We tried our best and I know in the next game we can come back. I am just disappointed to lose so many people."

Hearts responded positively after falling behind but were undermined in their attempts to equalise. They suffered from the paucity of David Obua's performance wide on the left, and how long Laszlo is prepared to persist with the languid Ugandan is indeed a pertinent question. Similarly, in the second half, substitute David Witteveen looked like a fish out of Austrian amateur water.

Tumilty did not help Hearts' cause. The referee waved play on when Michael Stewart appeared to be impeded by Jerel Ifil in the penalty box after dispossessing the Englishman. Then came one of the most astonishing decisions any football fan could witness. Black, the replacement for Wallace, showed Barbarian-like strength to win the ball in midfield and drive himself through four tackles towards Aberdeen's penalty area. Charlie Mulgrew eventually barged him down, yet Tumilty awarded the visitors a free-kick.

At half-time, Hearts retained a sense of hope that an equaliser could be forthcoming, but the second goal killed their challenge and Aberdeen proceeded to dominate the second half before Young's third completed a near-perfect evening for McGhee. His team are now in sixth place, one point behind Hearts but with two games in hand.

"I think that was our most complete performance of the season, the most emphatic display," he opined. "I said leading up to this game that I hoped Lee Miller coming back would make a difference. He was an extra element and hopefully that brought the improvement. I'm surprised to win as comfortably as we did. You come to Tynecastle hoping to win by the odd goal.

"Fyvie's goal showed why he is in the team, he's got all the ingredients. You see his strength, he can hold off men, he also has running power and finishing. At the moment he's under contract but playing for youth-team money, so we'd like to sort that. You could go through them all, we really didn't have a failure. The challenge now is to keep this going. We've now won four out of five and all we can do is chip away at the top six. It's disappointing Hibs beat Celtic, not because I'm a Celtic supporter but because we want to try and catch Hibs. This result will give our players and fans a whole lot of confidence."

McGhee aimed several verbal taunts at the Hearts bench during the match, which might have been why Laszlo's assistant, Werner Burger, refused to shake his hand at full-time. "Touchline antics are part of the game and it's something I enjoy tremendously," said McGhee. "Csaba did shake my hand but the other guy didn't. I don't know his name. I don't know him so it doesn't really matter."

It certainly didn't concern Laszlo, who must now prepare what is left of his squad for Saturday's visit to McDiarmid Park. "We looked at Black's heart and his back and he will be out for a couple of days," bemoaned the Hungarian. "Scott Robinson's knee is full with blood, this is not an accident. Ruben had a kick against his knee and he must have a scan today. Lee had an old groin injury. Jose (Goncalves] told me he could not sit on the bench, he was not 100 per cent sure. Driver is too early. Maybe Goncalves can play against St Johnstone, maybe Driver will be on the bench. Christian Nade can come back and this is important. I hope we do better on Saturday."

Taken from the Scotsman