Aberdeen 2 - 1 Hibs: Gatheussi helps Hibs self-destruct

MOTHERWELL and Dundee United contrived to hand Hibernian a golden opportunity before their meeting with Aberdeen yesterday, and the Edinburgh club responded by squandering it in quite spectacular fashion. The Hibs manager Mixu Paatelainen could only rearrange a familiar phrase: "We pressed the button that destroyed us."

On a day when they might have leapfrogged both of their rivals for third place in the SPL, Hibs managed instead to implode. Two utterly pointless red cards, first for Thierry Gatheussi then for Colin Nish, both for dissent, reduced them to nine men at a stage in the match when they were 2-1 down. It rendered their cause all but hopeless.

Briefly it seemed so promising. After an entirely forgettable first half Dean Shiels ignited things with a wonderful solo goal after 55 minutes, when he dispossessed Zander Diamond, side-stepped Scott Severin, and ran 40 yards before entering the box and sliding it past Jamie Langfield.

But eight minutes later Darren Mackie, who'd been on the pitch less than a minute, equalised. Hibs defender Martin Canning seemed to be trying run the ball out of play on the bye-line, but the tenacious Mackie dispossessed him, cut inside, and scored from a tight angle. And then Hibs pressed that button. Principal architect of the self-destruction was Gatheussi, who was adjudged to foul Lee Miller in the box. It didn't look the most clear-cut penalty – the ball was in the air and Miller seemed to slam into Gatheussi, an incident that Paatelainen later claimed was "never a penalty – maybe in volleyball, not in football." Stuart Dougal, the referee, thought differently, and Miller slammed the spot-kick decisively into the net.

Two minutes later Gatheussi was still complaining, earning himself a booking as Shiels tried to usher him away.

But Gatheussi kept at it, eventually talking himself into a second booking. Shiels began slapping himself on the side of the head to signal his despair at his team-mate's stupidity.

Nish's ordering off, seven minutes later, was even more baffling – a straight red card for dissent following an innocuous incident in the middle of the pitch. He had been on the pitch seven minutes.

Paatelainen vented his frustration at his players' ill discipline. "If players talk to the referee they're asking for trouble," he said, shrugging his broad shoulders. "They should know better. If you start arguing, you lose every time. But I'm surprised the referee enters into dialogue."

Shiels was less diplomatic in refusing to reveal what Gatheussi had said. "I don't want to give the referee any of the limelight, because I think that's what some of them want," said Hibs' goalscorer. While Paatelainen insisted third place was still the target, Shiels was more blunt: "Today was a chance to push on and get into Europe and I think we failed. They were there for the taking."

Aberdeen had started the game looking far brighter than Hibs, and in four minutes should have opened the scoring, but Miller dithered and squared the ball rather than converting Barry Nicholson's cross. It was typical of their first half. Jimmy Nicholl, standing in for the absent Jimmy Calderwood, admitted that his side, while dominant in possession, "didn't show any composure in the final third."

Miller was more unlucky seven minutes later, when he rose to head a high Alan Maybury cross, only to see the ball cleared off the line by Rob Jones. In the end, though, he helped his side to a deserved win.



MAN OF THE MATCH

Lee Miller. Started slowly, but won and scored a penalty and almost scored a spectacular third.


QUICK FACT

A minute's applause allowed fans to remember Derek McKay, remembered as the man who won the Dons the 1970 Scottish Cup.

TALKING POINT

Jimmy Calderwood left his assistant Jimmy in charge while he takes in some European games meaning, inevitably, that yesterday the undisputed heavyweight champion of the technical area was Mixu Paatelainen.