Hearts 1 – 1 Aberdeen

By: TheNorthernLight | October 26th, 2008

Hearts and Aberdeen fought out an eventful 1-1 draw at Tynecastle in conditions that can at best be described as ‘testing’. Strong winds and rain made for a scrappy encounter.

The Dons lined up as Langfield in goal, Considine at left back, Mair and Diamond (who had recovered from a flu bug going around Pittodrie) in the center with Jared Hodgkiss at right back. In the middle, Aloku played out wide on the left with captain Severin accompanied by Foster in the middle and Derek Young wide on the right. Up front, Calderwood went as predicted, with Miller and Mackie up front.

It was Aberdeen who struck first from an impressive start – Darren Mackie got on the end of a cracking Andrew Considine pass, worked his way past Zaliukas before driving a low ball Janos Balogh in the Hearts’ goal. The least was only short however, as Lee Wallace and Christian Nade interchanged passes before Wallace fired the ball high into the net past Langfield. Both sides had chances to score as both Nade and Jamie Mole missed from close range, while Aberdeen where unlucky when both Hodgkiss and Miller where denied by the woodwork as the game wore on. There was time for some more controversy though just before the end. Michael Stewart appeared to be brought down by Langfield in the final five minutes of the game. Referee Steve Conroy awarded the spot kick to the home team but after protests from Langfield, Conroy consulted his linesman and changed his mind, deciding instead that Stewart had dived and awarded a goal kick instead. Somewhat surprisingly, the Hearts midfielder was not booked for diving. Charlie Mulgrew, so often an effective ‘impact’ substitution came on for Lee Miller with only a few minutes left. His first action was to clear of the line in the dying minutes to keep the score level at 1-1 and secure the point for the Dons.

Aberdeen continue their unbeaten away record, and no one will be happier with the point than Jimmy Calderwood, who had to answer questions about a story on Sky Sports claiming the Aberdeen boss would be fired and replaced with Mark McGhee after the game. The story turned out to be nonsense and was withdrawn later on in the day, but nevertheless it should send out a clear signal that results need to improve.

Aberdeen face Kilmarnock at home next week – will this be the game that finally gets our first three home points?