Paatelainen reveals his tough side to signal Hibs honeymoon is over

IF THERE is such a thing as a honeymoon period granted to players by new managers, it came to abrupt end for the Hibernian squad at Tannadice.

Back at the ground where he first arrived 20 years ago as a raw teenager to learn his trade under the hard-nosed tutorship of Jim McLean, the amiable Mixu Paatelainen revealed another, tougher side to his character on Saturday. McLean would have been proud, because whatever the Hibs manager said at half-time seemed to work.

Dundee United's domination of the first half should have given them more than a one-goal lead at the break, but John Rankin's equaliser just 25 seconds into the second half shows just how clearly Paatelainen got his message across at the break. "He's very upbeat," said Dean Shiels of his manager. "But I think you found at half-time that some of the lads got a shock they haven't had for a while. That was good though. He gets the best out of players. I think he got his point across in the way he thought was best, put it like that."

With Shiels supporting Steven Fletcher and Colin Nish in attack, Hibs pushed higher up the pitch in the second period and turned what had been a one-sided game into a much more even contest. But the Edinburgh team's improvement did not merit the victory they almost snatched in injury time when three good chances were spurned.

Shiels missed the best of them, failing to connect properly with his right instep after Fletcher had laid the ball neatly into his path eight yards from goal and squirting his shot wide of target. "I should have scored," he admitted. "I think that might have been unfair to Dundee United. On reflection, the draw was probably a fair result. It sort of skidded up, but that's no excuse.

"I thought he (Fletcher] was going to shoot, but he has done well to pick me out. I think because he missed one a couple of minutes before, I wasn't expecting him to pass it."

Passing the ball too much in and around the box irritates Paatelainen, and he is determined to change the way Hibs attack in the next few weeks. He described his team's passing in the first half as "horrendous" and wants them to be far more direct in front of goal.

"We would like to create chances and put crosses in earlier for somebody like Colin Nish," he said. "He showed some nice touches, but there wasn't really a goal threat from him. I felt we were a little bit tame doing that. We don't shoot enough for my liking. We tend to overplay a little. But we're practising that."

Rankin certainly got his reward for shooting first time with his first goal for the club. The midfielder's volley from the edge of the box spun and bounced in front of Lukasz Zaluska, but even if the United goalkeeper was put off by the presence of Shiels in an offside position he should have dealt with it much better than he did.

Hibs had Yves Makalambay to thank at the other end for keeping them in the match. Perhaps buoyed by spending the previous week on international duty with Belgium, the giant goalkeeper limited himself to just one fumbled cross and showed strength and agility to pull off a number of excellent saves.

Even though he got a hand to it, there wasn't much more Makalambay could do to prevent Noel Hunt putting United ahead with a 12th-minute penalty awarded for a push from Guillaume Beuzelin on Willo Flood. "He came through the back of me," said Flood. "Beuzelin himself even said he thought it was a penalty. It was a clear header on goal."

Filling the sizeable void left by Barry Robson's departure to Celtic, Flood was a constant threat to Hibs as the most advanced and effective member of United's five-man midfield. Despite being an injury doubt before the match and playing with both ankles strapped up, the Irishman was as energetic as he was creative. Picking up where they left off at Tynecastle during Tuesday's rousing CIS Cup semi-final victory over Aberdeen, Craig Levein's team were far quicker and more determined than the visitors in the first half and had chances to win it in the second.

"Considering we used up a lot of energy, both emotionally and physically, on Tuesday night, I thought we still showed great reserves of energy and we were still going strong at the end of the match," said Levein. "We probably should have won it, but I thought it was a great game. We dominated for long spells and created opportunities. We didn't take the vast majority of them and could have lost it in the end."

Man of the match
Willo Flood (Dundee Utd)
Yves Makalambay and Noel Hunt ran him close, but the versatile Irish midfielder edges it for displaying such energy and directness in Barry Robson's old midfield role, despite having each of his ankles strapped.

Real Fletcher link
HIBS striker Steven Fletcher is one of ten young players across Europe on the radar of Real Madrid, according to a newspaper report yesterday.

The La Liga leaders are considering a £4million move for the Easter Road club's top scorer after their former scout, Jeff Vetere, who is now at Newcastle, passed on favourable reports to Pedrag Mijatovic, the sporting director at the Bernabeu. They are understood to have watched Fletcher at least twice.

A Real source said: "It is true Fletcher is in the second phase (of the scouting process]. We will watch him again before making a definite decision."

Real's chief scout Julen Lopetegui added: "He is now one of ten young players we are watching across Europe."