Desperate Dons too tired to break Hearts
IN a war of attrition, football is always the loser.
So it was at Pittodrie, where Aberdeen and Hearts served up a stinker of a stalemate.
Worryingly for the home side, who are desperate to retain “title-challengers” status after Rangers’ return to the Premiership, it was a second consecutive goalless draw.
But, in truth, it was a game they could – and probably should – have had wrapped up by half-time.
Even without top scorer Adam Rooney, who started on the bench, the Dons dominated Robbie Nielson’s fearful-looking Jambos.
But they did not capitalise – and Hearts strangled the game in the second half.
Derek McInnes was a disappointed man at full time.
Yet the Reds gaffer refused to knock his knackered aces, who have endured an energysapping run of fixtures over the last few weeks.
He said: “I always felt getting a goal in the first half was going to be crucial in this game and getting ourselves ahead as there was a clear lack of energy in that second half.
“That was without question, then there was a lack of quality at times because there are players who are clearly out on their feet.
“Graeme Shinnie and Ryan Jack are real indicators for me as they are as fit as any player going.
“You see them plodding through the game in the last half hour and that’s just a consequence of playing four games in nine days for the majority of them.
“We’ve tried to freshen it up but Andy Considine was with his wife in hospital all night and got to bed at seven this morning, so I had to rule him out when he was going to start.
“We were a bit lopsided as a result, but when we were chasing the game in that last half hour, when we normally throw everything at teams at Pittodrie, there was a lack of energy.
“The positive is that it’s two clean sheets from two games, and from a side which was losing goals at the end of last season. “We need fresh minds and fresh legs. “We are missing Jonny Hayes, that’s clear, but there are players who have kept going to the well and it’s not there.”
McInnes’ post-match message was a heavy one, but Hearts looked like the team with the weight of the world on their shoulders early on.
By contrast, Aberdeen were buoyant.
It was one-way traffic from the off, with Jayden Stockley, leading the line for the Reds in Rooney’s absence, and Wes Burns both trying their luck inside 15 minutes.
Peter Pawlett, handed his first start of the season, looked like a man with a point to prove.
Kept out of Derek McInnes’ starting XI for so long by the injured Jonny Hayes, he offered pace, nous and directness in equal measure.
On-loan Bristol City man, Burns, was another standout, and he came closest to opening the scoring.
Niall McGinn, not surprisingly, was the provider, swinging a tantalising cross towards Hearts ’keeper Jack Hamilton’s back post.
Burns rose highest and cannoned a header off the bar, but the assistant referee’s flag was up for offside.
Robbie Neilson’s side, out of Europe and out of the League Cup by mid-August, offered next to nothing going forward.
Instead they chopped down the Dons at will, picking up five bookings to add to the 11 they accumulated in their first two games.
Tony Watt, who started up front alongside Connor Sammon, was the Jambos’ only real threat, but Aberdeen’s defence, with Mark Reynolds in an unfamiliar left-back role, shackled him effectively – until right at the death, when he worked himself space in the box only to balloon his effort miles over.
For Neilson, a point was satisfactory, but he admitted his side’s yellow card count is becoming an issue.
“I don’t know how many Aberdeen players got booked, two or three?” said Neilson.
“How many did we get? Three, four, five, six, seven?
“That’s the way it is. We need to accept it. Having a moan about it isn’t going to change it.
“There are a couple I’m frustrated with, Rherras kicking the ball away, that was a silly one, we’ll need to have words with him about that.”