Hearts: Neil Critchley's decisions and John Beaton's questionable calls after Aberdeen Scottish Cup defeat

Diamonds are forever, as they say. Hearts may well persevere with theirs for a while at least. Head coach Neil Critchley will doubtless feel vindicated by his chosen formation, team selection and substitutions despite Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat against Aberdeen. Under pressure before kick-off, his decisions on the day were always going to be scrutinised.

Referee John Beaton’s choices left a lot to be desired, but more of that later. For now, it is worth analysing Critchley’s approach following a multitude of recent criticism. He should not be absolved for Hearts’ failure to reach the Premiership’s top six, but at Hampden Park he displayed his in-game management.

Firstly, he kept faith with Adam Forrester at right-back. The 20-year-old rewarded his manager with a sterling performance, playing three different positions and excelling in them all. At right-back, right centre-back and right wing-back, Forrester answered his own critics emphatically.

Secondly, Critchley’s diamond-shaped midfield worked against Aberdeen’s 4-2-3-1 set-up in the first half. Hearts were comfortably the better team at 1-1 before defender Michael Steinwender was red-carded for denying Topi Keskinen an obvious goalscoring opportunity. They were unfortunate not to be ahead by half-time having dominated the play. Anchorman Beni Baningime was flanked by Jorge Grant and Cammy Devlin, and all three contributed to their team’s control.

Thirdly, at the apex of that midfield was reinstated captain Lawrence Shankland. Left out of the previous two league matches against Dundee United and Motherwell, he returned to lead by example and scored Hearts’ equaliser. His performance was another positive from a Tynecastle perspective and a decision that Critchley definitely got correct.

Fourthly, the Englishman substituted strikers James Wilson and Elton Kabangu and replaced them with defenders Frankie Kent and Craig Halkett during the interval. The plan, clearly, was to stifle Aberdeen and hope to hit on the counter-attack after being reduced to 10 men. Kent, Halkett and Jamie McCart were assured, along with wing-backs Forrester and James Penrice, although Hearts naturally lacked attacking threat as a result.

Perhaps a flexible 4-4-1 shape would have allowed more attacking impetus. The 5-3-1 allowed Aberdeen the ball and challenged them to break down Hearts’ diligent rearguard. It took until the dying moments of extra-time - by which time Hearts were down to nine men with Devlin’s red card - for those in red to prise a winning goal through substitute Oday Dabbagh.

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The dismissals of Steinwender and Devlin cannot be blamed on Critchley. Beaton was correct to send the Austrian off for taking Keskinen down as he sprinted clear on 43 minutes. Covering defenders would not have stopped him and therefore, based on the laws of football, a red card was the only option.

The issue is considerably less clear-cut on Devlin. The referee booked the Australian on 77 minutes for a challenge on Pape Gueye in which he won the ball before making contact with the Aberdeen midfielder. Play was dead due to an offside call a millisecond before the tackle, so to issue a yellow card seemed unjust. Then, four minutes from the end of extra-time, and with the score still 1-1, Beaton showed Devlin a second yellow followed by a red card. He attempted to clear a loose ball at the edge of Hearts’ penalty area and Dante Polvara nipped in to get a toe to the ball first. Devlin caught Polvara and Beaton sent him off.

It was another harsh call and an unnecessary one. The Hearts player wasn’t reckless yet found himself heading towards the tunnel early for two questionable decisions. He won the ball at the first yellow and fouled Polvara at the second, but was either really worth a caution? Former referees Steve Conroy and Des Roache didn’t think so. More to the point, those were Devlin’s 12th and 13th yellow cards in his 37th game of the season - so is his reputation now preceding him?

He is a combative player, emotional, prone to silly fouls, but not malicious. Beaton may well review those incidents and feel he could have handled them differently. They certainly proved costly. Seconds after Devlin went off, nine-man Hearts fell 2-1 behind to Oday Dabbagh’s winning goal and were therefore denied the chance of a penalty shootout lottery to reach the final having battled manfully with less players. Those moments were the crux of angry scenes at full-time as Critchley and his assistant Mike Garrity vented their fury at the referee. Beaton responded by producing another red card, this time for Garrity.

A day which promised so much ended in frustration for Hearts, their players, staff and more than 22,000 fans at Hampden. They did so many things well in Glasgow but returned to Edinburgh with nothing as Aberdeen progressed to the final on 24 May. Between now and then, Hearts face five fixtures in the bottom half of Scotland’s top flight.

Supporters can likely expect to see more of that midfield diamond and the players who executed it so efficiently, but results will determine whether Saturday amounted to some progress or merely the proverbial flash in the pan.

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