Active Nation Scottish Cup Fourth Round, Saturday 9 January 2010 - Pittodrie
I headed to the Granite City on the Friday evening and shared a few beers with an old mucker before staying overnight. I don't think he quite believed me when I told him how poor Hearts have been this season. What about five games in a row unbeaten? Victory over Celtic? A good draw at Hibernian? Just papering over the cracks, I told him.
And so it was proved at a chilly Pittodrie Stadium (when is it anything else up there?) The tie was one of the few that survived the adverse weather conditions (the latest entry into cliched life in this country) and the thousand or so Hearts fans who made the considerable effort to head north must have wished they hadn't bothered. In keeping with the majority of matches this season it was poor fare.
Hearts were without the likes of Andrew Driver, Jose Goncalves, Lee Wallace, Ruben Palazuelos Craig Thomson and Jason Thomson but those who did take to the field in unfamiliar blue were, quite simply, awful. I counted just one effort on goal in the first forty-five minutes while Aberdeen certainly kept visiting keeper Marian Kello busy. Hearts front two were teenagers Gordon Smith and Scott Robinson - they tried their best but they looked out of their depth. They weren't helped by the somewhat mystifying tactic of launching constant high balls to Robinson who cut a diminutive and hapless figure. What's it all about Csaba?
It was inevitable Aberdeen would eventually score - and inevitable it would be Darren Mackie, a player who apparently hasn't scored for eleven months. Why is it all the droughts are ended against Hearts? St. Mirren, for example, took eight months to win a league game at their shiny new ground. Until Hearts came a calling...
More inevitability - former Hearts striker Lee Miller scored Aberdeen's second with fourteen minutes left. What happened after that, dear reader, I'm unable to tell you as I left the ground - along with hundreds of other disgruntled Hearts supporters.
Who have East Stirlingshire got next week...?
I thought the tactic was to inform Vlad that a new striker is required. It improved when Nade came on and tried to get transferred!
ReplyDeleteThe 8,000 crowd created a bit of a dead atmosphere for a game that would normally have twice that attendance and the place rocking.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased with the result of course and signs the AFC are capable of having a decent second half to the season