Former Hibs star in 'worth it' claim after punishment for celebrating late winner in front of Hearts fans
The former Hibs striker had a telling impact in the game against Hearts on Saturday.
Kevin Nisbet claims his booking for a late winner against Hearts was worth the punishment after the former Hibs striker gave some back to travelling fans from Gorgie.
Aberdeen’s new captain scored a second half stoppage time penalty as the Dons overturned a one-goal deficit to win 2-1 at Pittodrie in dramatic fashion. It had Hearts leaving the north-east with another defeat and head coach Wouter Vrancken was shocked after Oisin McEntee’s goal looked to have been enough for three opening day points on Premiership business.
Nisbet ran the length of the pitch to cup his ear towards the away end, before throwing his thumb over his shoulder in an apparent, 'up the road' gesture, Lewis Mayo levelling the game minutes prior. The Aberdeen talisman, who featured for Edinburgh rivals Hibs between 2020-2023, says he was cool and composed while Hearts players tried to throw him off course.
Kevin Nisbet on penalty vs Hearts
He said on the booking punishment for his celebration: "Well worth the booking! It was a cracking way to start off the campaign. You can probably see by my celebration as well. It's a great start and the first league game is the most important game, so to get three points is massive.
"Did I feel the pressure taking the penalty? Nah, easy as that. One of the Hearts players tried to put me off as well, but I don't really feel the pressure. I'm confident in the way I strike the ball. If I strike it well, then it'll go in. A game can be 95 minutes, it's not 90 minutes, it's not 85 minutes. So we went right until the final whistle. That's what the gaffer's instilled in us, a bit of resilience, a bit of character. We showed that against Hearts.
"You can't really get too down if you go and take a bad touch or miss a chance. The game can go 95 minutes or 96 minutes, so you need to be there for when the time comes. The gaffer's brought in a lot of leaders, a lot of people who can carry the game when other people aren't playing well. So we've got a lot of character, a lot of resilience and we will get better. This game was just about getting three points. It's the first league match and we're not getting too carried away."
Stephen Robinson on Aberdeen 2-1 Hearts
Aberdeen manager Stephen Robinson said of beating Hearts: “If you're going to win, doing it in the last minute makes it a lot more exciting! What I can categorically say is that wouldn't have happened last year. When I came in, I thought we lacked fight, we lacked desire. But we showed that today, and with a lot of new players as well. They showed great character to come back against, make no mistake, a very good side. It's a fantastic result for us.
“I've seen four wins now in the cup, a lot of good stuff on the ball because we dominated. But today's a different test. You've got to deal with the physicality of set plays, which I thought we were excellent at. You've got to deal with people like Claudio Braga and Amadou Ba-Sy, who are very good players. We've done that really well. We showed hunger and that's something I thought the club lacked when I came here. It's only a start. It's a small step in the right direction.”