Cathro doubts
Youth coach Daly seen passing on orders from directors’ box. By Neil Cameron
TIME might well be running out for Ian Cathro at Hearts after a humiliating day on and off the pitch. Not only were his team utterly appalling at Pittodrie but, and this is a story which will run, Craig Levein, the club’s director of football, was spotted entering the visitors’ dressing room at half-time confirming what Scottish football has long suspected.
And that is Levein has a huge influence on team matters to the extent Jon Daly, a youth coach, was seen clearly delivering orders, suggestions, observations, whichever word you’d choose to use, from the directors’ box, to the dug-out.
“It’s normal,” stressed Cathro who made a strong and articulate case for this way of working, although it is impossible to get away from him looking weak. Particularly as that is five wins from 17 games for the 30-year-old.
“One of the positive things about the work with the club and the work with the staff is there is a lot of people engaged, we have good staff, we have good coaches.
“And I involve them in our work during the week, I am someone who wants to train with a lot of coaches.
“I have always worked in a situation where we have one member of our technical staff in the stand who understands the gameplan and the work we have done and so on. So that person has the responsibility to me to keep the dialogue active on certain things I have asked them to look at.
“I know there’s a historical aspect to this that turns it into a story for you now and then. But trust me, it’s completely normal”
“Now, I can’t discuss too many specific things right now, but if we are talking generally about this to try and stop some sort of directed hysteria it’s entirely normal that we work together.”
As for Aberdeen, they took a step closer to their third successive second placed Premiership finish and at the same time delayed Celtic’s title party for a couple of weeks.
Hearts now have no chance of getting close to the runners-up spot, while Rangers are running out of games to bridge the gap.
It’s difficult to see what else Derek McInnes and his players could have achieved this season and it will be interesting to see what happens if this group can be kept together and the manager isn’t poached.
Aberdeen reached the League Cup Final, have another semi-final looming and while there are greater plaudits in football than ‘best of the rest,’ with Celtic so far in front this is all anyone can expect from the men of Pittodrie.
“I thought it was an excellent performance,” said McInnes. “We could have won by more if I’m honest.
“There is an honesty which screams out of this team. We can talk about maybe we could be more clinical, maybe have some more quality and we do strive for that perfect game; however, the players cannot give anything more physically. They are a credit for themselves and the club.”
In a frantic opening, Hearts went close on six minutes when Sam Nicholson cut in from the left wing, got the ball to his right foot which sent a shot towards goal with some speed tipped over by the fingers of Aberdeen keeper Joe Lewis.
At the other end, Johnny Hayes dribbled past two Hearts players, got to the byline but none of his team-mates were in a good enough position for a cut-back and so he had to go for a shot from an impossible angle.
Hearts should actually have scored on the quarter hour when the strength of Esmael Goncalves got him space inside the Aberdeen box, he passed to Arnaud Djoum who in turn rolled the ball to Nicholson who should have at least hit the target with a curling shot that didn’t curl enough.
For all that the visitors created two decent chances, the best football came from Aberdeen and it was no great surprise when they took the lead on 21 minutes.
Aberdeen passed Hearts to death on close to the left touchline, the ball eventually being played to Niall McGinn whose cross was met by Shay Logan of all people who had wondered up from right-back to score with a bullet of a header.
The clinching goal came on on 56 minutes and ii was really all