Ambitions remain upwardly mobile as top-six spot assured

Richard Winton
Assistant Sports Editor

SOME might rail against what they perceive as manufactured drama or artificial achieve-ment, but confirmation of a top-six place in the Clydes-dale Bank Premier League was considered something to celebrate by those connected to Hearts.

As this contest ambled to a conclusion, perfunctory passes were cheered, mistakes accepted with sympathetic murmuring and anything approaching a goalscoring opportunity heralded excitedly as a sense of satisfaction settled over Tynecastle.

This thumping triumph allows the Gorgie side to look ahead, to St Johnstone, Dundee United and perhaps even Motherwell in the league as well as to a cup semi-final engagement with Celtic in two weeks' time. Suddenly, a season of uncertainty and wretchedness could develop into one to remember.

"If I can be fifth, I don't want to be sixth," said manager Paulo Sergio when asked if the target for the campaign had altered. "Tactically, it was a rich game in which my players did a good job."

Little wonder he cut a contended figure, even if the Portuguese insisted the result was more rewarding than the performance. His restoration of established players after a youthful XI lost at St Johnstone last week diluted little of the enthusiasm evident in that defeat, but equipped his side with enough nous to ensure the outcome was never in doubt from the moment Ryan McGowan leapt highest to nudge a Danny Grainger corner into the Aberdeen net just before the half-hour.

That Hearts never looked like ceding that advantage can also be attributed to the anaemic nature of the visitors' attacking. Scott Vernon spent the first half especially isolated, with the purported support of Darren Mackie and Peter Pawlett occupied by defensive duties as Aberdeen suffocated the contest with a view to exploiting their apparent aerial advantage.

Craig Brown's side did enjoy a fleeting spell of superiority after McGowan's goal, but a blocked Andrew Considine shot was all they had to show for a series of crosses and corners, their only second-half opening an alluring chance that Vernon lashed over.

Aberdeen's problem, a lack of goals, is all too familiar for Brown. "We need to be braver on the ball so we can create something," said Russell Anderson, who made a second debut for the club in a brief cameo. "When they scored, we didn't look like recovering."

What the visitors lacked more than anything was a player capable of conjuring something from nothing. Someone like Hearts' double goalscorer Rudi Skacel. There are plenty of a maroon persuasion who will howl with derision at the slightest criticism of the Czech, but there is a reason he is playing in Scotland and a reason Sergio often deems him expendable.

One thing that is beyond reproach is his shooting ability from distance, demonstrated with some aplomb yesterday. Perhaps fuelled by his failure to connect with a teasing Andrew Driver delivery minutes earlier, Skacel assumed possession in the middle of the Aberdeen half and was allowed to saunter forward before unleashing an unerring strike that roared past Jason Brown and exploded against the rigging.

"We are used to that," Sergio said. "I would rather speak about the first touch for his second goal; only a top-class player can do that."

Certainly, the manner in which Skacel accepted a pass in the area and stepped away from his marker in one fluid movement before sliding a shot beyond the exposed Brown was worthy of acclaim and, conceded the manager, a prolonged stay at the club.

"It is important to keep him and others," Sergio said. "We have to reduce costs, but that doesn't mean Rudi has to leave us."

Days such as yesterday amply demonstrate why.

Taken from the Herald