'Interesting week now': Steven Naismith's Hearts-Aberdeen assessment and why he said sorry to Barry Robson
Goals from Josh Ginnelly and Lawrence Shankland helped the Jambos overcome losing the opener to a Mattie Pollock header and keep alive their hopes of finishing third in the cinch Premiership. They now head to Ibrox on Wednesday needing a positive result against Rangers while Aberdeen are at home to St Mirren, before the campaign culminates against Edinburgh rivals Hibs. Naismith believes the win over the Dons gives his team hope that they can still finish best of the rest.
“I think it is an interesting week now,” said Naismith. “This win has clawed us back to much closer to Aberdeen than we were before the game. We go into the next week with two games again looking to cause more problems than the teams we come up against and give ourselves a chance.
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Hide Ad“That is all we can do. At the time of season and from where the team was sitting, the morale, everything – it was really tough to turn around. We have done a really good job of doing that, bringing in an attacking style of football which was pleasing for me.
“We can go and compete [at Ibrox] for sure, I really believe that. Today gives me a lot of confidence in terms of how we were calm, controlled in our possession. Yes we made the wrong choices in the final third at times sometimes, and out positions behind the ball weren’t perfect. But we can go and compete.”
Naismith’s Aberdeen counterpart Barry Robson lamented the decision not to award a penalty despite a VAR check when Marley Watkins was tackled by Peter Haring in the box but says he will take heart from the return of three key players – Duk, Graeme Shinnie and Ross McCrorie – for Wednesday’s visit from the Buddies.
"It was a proper game, a good scrap” said Robson. “We knew coming down here we wouldn't get it our own way, Hearts are trying to chase us down. We got a goal up and Mattie Pollock has a great opportunity to get another goal and the penalty decision I've not seen back, but we don't expect to get them anyway. We've not had them since I've been in post, so I don't expect to get anything that way.
"Here we sit once again speaking about it and it's frustrating. That's why I've been booked today, I didn't think a lot of decisions were great. It's not hard to get it right. We've got two games to go and the thing I'm massively hopeful about is that I've not had one decision from VAR, so surely I'm going to get one in the last two games. Surely.
"Compared to last time down here [when Hearts defeated Aberdeen 5-0 in January], we're a totally different team now. The positive for me is we've got Shinnie, Duk and McCrorie all to come back. It's not easy to come down here and play without those players. The other boys that came in did well but they're your experience, your legs and your goals. That's what we've got to look forward to on Wednesday.”
Robson was also miffed that Naismith forgot to shake his hand at the full-time whistle, instead celebrating passionately on the pitch. “Naisy's got a bit excited and he should have come over to shake our hands,” he added. “He'll know that, we'll sort that out later on.” Naismith was quick to apologise in his post-match press call. “That’s my bad and I’m naive in this situation in that the passion, the will to win overrides the thought process,” said the Hearts boss. “I have just apologised to him there. I know Barry will not be happy with me and he’ll have been raging after it, but that’s 100 per cent my fault. And I’ve spoken to him and apologised because he’s someone I consider a friend.”