Skill posted missing as mediocrity rules

JAMES TRAYNOR

6 Oct 1993

Aberdeen 0, Hearts 0.

ONE of these matches the season will start.

We keep hearing managers and players saying something is about to happen, but pretty soon the premier division campaign will be at the half-way point and we are still waiting for signs of healthy life.

Hibernian, of course, would dispute this because they have now moved to the top of the division, but movements at Pittodrie last night were generally misguided.

Enthusiasm was there in abundance but you can see that in school playground matches and Aberdeen and Hearts are supposed to have grand intentions.

Hardly anyone was able to pass the ball with any accuracy and nobody seemed to know how to go around an opponent while taking the ball along at the same time.

It isn't meant to be like this.

Hopefully, it will get better -- you see, now I'm doing it, living in hope, I mean -- and the supporters will be better rewarded.

Around 14,000 of them showed up last night and even though the points were still up for grabs towards the end, many of the customers gave up and headed for home before the last whistle.

There was a distinctly defensive look about the team selected by Hearts' manager Sandy Clark, whose patience was probably being tried by the fact that his players have been finding it difficult to collect points away from home.

Indeed, they went into last night's game without having beaten anyone on foreign soil.

John Colquhoun and John Robertson, both of whom started the match against Dundee last Saturday, were on the bench beside Henry Smith, dropped after the club's game against Atletico Madrid a week ago.

And Smith saw his replacement, Nicky Walker, pressed into action first, reacting smartly to pull Robert Connor's prodded snap shot out of the air.

The match had not started well for Hearts who appeared uneasy whenever Aberdeen approached.

In these early stages they looked like a team without confidence.

However, Justin Fashanu provided hope when, after having controlled a pass inside from Tosh McKinlay, he thumped a shot from 20 yards.

There was venom in the effort, but Theo Snelders was right behind the ball and made the save look easy.

Eoin Jess had not recovered from the injury sustained against Motherwell and his place in Aberdeen's front line was taken by Andy Gibson, making his first top-team appearance of the season.

It was unfortunate for him that genuine scoring opportunities were scarce as each side displayed a tendency to give the other the ball.

On those occasions when they didn't pass to someone wearing a different colour of jersey they usually delivered the ball to the back of one of the stands.

Determined to improve on what he had seen, Paul Kane stepped forward to try his luck from a cut-back.

However, his low shot skipped a yard wide of Walker's right hand corner, and Duncan Shearer's attempt from a free kick just outside the box followed the same route.

The people who had made the effort and paid at the turnstiles were entitled to believe that the second half would be better, but first attempts to play the ball around were, if anything, worse than those already seen.

No one was able to put a foot on the ball and apply thought and a decent pass.

Anxious to engineer a proper breakthrough, Aberdeen took off Gibson in 61 minutes and sent on Mixu Paatelainen to see if the powerful Finn could undermine Hearts' defence.

The Dons intentions were clear again when they made their second substitution -- taking off a defender, Stephen Wright, and pushing on Theo ten Caat.

Hearts also made a change, replacing Ian Ferguson with Colquhoun but Aberdeen again came close when a header by Paatelainen, touched on by Shearer, just skimmed the bar.

ABERDEEN -- Snelders, McKimmie, Wright, Kane, McLeish, Irvine, Miller, Richardson, Gibson, Shearer, Connor.

Substitutes -- Watt, Ten Caat, Paatelainen.

HEARTS -- Walker, Locke, McKinlay, McLaren, Hogg, Berry, Weir, Mackay, Fashanu, Leitch, Ferguson.

Substitutes -- Smith, Colquhoun, Robertson.

Referee -- H Williamson (Renfrew)

Taken from the Herald