The managers' old tune is still best for Miller

Ian Paul

30 Nov 1992

HE may not be a perfectionist, but until one comes along, Willie Miller will fit the bill for Aberdeen's players.

He did express satisfaction after the 6-2 trouncing of Hearts at Pittodrie but, maintaining the myth of Aberdonian canniness, (not so easy for a man from Glasgow), he made the point that the performance at the start of the second half was "not good."

He is a hard man to please is Willie, but that very insistence on the highest standards may be at the core of the revival which is gaining momentum at Pittodrie.

Miller comes from the Fergie school of management, the exiled Glaswegian who sees his adopted home team being disregarded by the hacks down south as they give precedence to the Old Firm.

It was an attitude that catapulted Alex Ferguson and Aberdeen to their finest years, and the way things are going, Miller might yet emulate some of his former guv'nor's triumphs.

Don't suggest such a thing to the man himself, however.

Don't even suggest, as I did, that, after scoring 13 goals in two games to complete a fine run of victories, his team are entitled to be regarded as genuine title challengers.

The manager will merely play that old favourite of his breed, the one-game-at-a-time tune.

Of course, he is right again.

It may be an old song, but managers who have occasionally digressed have discovered its wisdom.

Aberdeen are still a long way behind Rangers, but they are playing such impressive, attacking football that they yet could make a race of this premier division.

No team at home or abroad has hammered Hearts with such ease this season.

And Aberdeen did so after it appeared that the Tynecastle grit early in the second period had rescued them from the defeat promised in the first half.

Miller was entitled to be annoyed at the way his team were outplayed in the opening spell after the break, by which time they led 2-0 from goals by Brian Irvine and the man who was to become the day's hat-trick hero, Duncan Shearer.

But Hearts would claim

with some justification, that it was their enterprising and willing recovery which turned the game around to such effect that they were level at 2-2 after 58 minutes, goals coming from Ian Baird and Graeme Hogg.

Their manager, Joe Jordan, described what happened next as, in effect, a rush of blood to the collective Tynecastle head.

"We chased the game, lost our discipline, and were punished for it," he said.

"There are times in the heat of the moment when players lose concentration and get exposed in defence.

It has not happened to us before this season.

Until this game, the defence had played very well."

There had been nothing much to get excited about in the first half when Aberdeen gradually assumed command after Irvine had headed them in front, a goal that seemed likely to be the only score before half time until Shearer nodded in the second right on the whistle.

All the thrills were yet to come, however.

Hearts, playing far more positively, tamed the northern midfield for a spell, managed to get their own front players into action, and were galvanised into greater effort when Baird redirected a John Miller shot past Theo Snelders.

Their energies paid off soon after when Hogg took credit for knocking the ball over the line following a Craig Levein header, although from our distant view, it seemed as if Shearer had unwillingly helped the ball on its way.

At any rate, it seemed as if we had a real game on our hands.

But not for long.

Aberdeen, with the exciting Scott Booth on for Jim Bett, did a bit of mental refuelling, and went after the visitors with some pulsating football.

Eventually they even evoked loud noises from the gentlefolk in the stand as Eoin Jess, Booth, Paul Mason and especially Lee Richardson took control of matters.

Richardson has managed even to please the manager by the way he has settled so quickly since his transfer from Blackburn Rovers.

He was a very effective player against Hearts, using the ball intelligently and taking responsibility in the heart of midfield.

It was he who, along with Shearer, set up the chance for Mason to put Aberdeen in front once more but the scorer deserves the bulk of the credit for the accuracy and power of his shot.

Hearts replaced Neil Berry with Ian Ferguson but they were never really to get back into the game.

Aberdeen simply hoisted their standards even higher.

Richardson spreadeagled the Hearts defence with a crossfield pass that Mason seized before crossing for Shearer to hit it on the run past Henry Smith.

Shearer was again in the right place to stroke home a cross from the other wing, this time from Jess to make it five and Booth grasped the sixth with a smashing volley after Mason had shown great control before making the pass.

Every one a winner.

Between the last two, Tosh McKinlay was sent off after his second booking.

It looked a harsh decision, but maybe he was relieved to get out of the way.

It was no fun being a Hearts defender at that point.

His manager, reasonably, was not for throwing in the title towel.

"There is more than half a season to go," said Jordan, who was magnanimous about Aberdeen's showing.

"The third goal was a marvellous strike and there was no doubt they deserved their victory."

Taken from the Herald