Mackay sees red. Hearts are let off the hook

KEN GALLACHER

2 Oct 1995

Hibs 2, Hearts 2

HIBS, conquerors of Rangers last weekend, had a second successive victory snatched from them in injury time yesterday.

Back at their own Easter Road stadium, they looked to be heading for victory over city rivals Hearts when, suddenly, with the referee allowing the game to move towards two minutes of injury time, John Robertson struck to claim an equaliser.

That was the final flourish from a dramatic second half which had seen a determined Hibs fightback, and the ordering off of Tynecastle veteran Gary Mackay, before Robertson added his own postscript.

That moment of madness from Mackay, after 63 minutes, could have cost his team their chance of sharing the points.

The game was poised at 1-1 when Mackay was shown the yellow card after stamping on Gareth Evans as the Hibs player lay on the ground.

Referee Willie Young had no option and so Mackay was sent off for the second time in a year in an Edinburgh derby.

Last season he went off for two yellow card offences.

Yesterday it was one red card which counted, and one which almost allowed Hibs to win a match that they had seemed so much out of before half-time.

In that first period, Hearts had dominated, and the Easter Road men, playing a back three of Gordon Hunter, Andy Millen, and Steven Tweed, looked uncomfortable against the quick attacking from Alan Lawrence and John Robertson.

Twice in the opening quarter of an hour the Hibs defence could have lost goals, once from a Lawrence cross which Brian Hamilton just failed to reach properly at the far post, and then from a George Wright cross which Hamilton headed against a post.

Five minutes before half-time, Hearts scored the goal that their pressure had deserved.

Once more the Hibs' defence looked untidy and disorganised when John Robertson chipped a ball over the face of the goal from the right hand side of the penalty box.

There was Dave McPherson at the far post, bending low to direct a header beyond Jim Leighton and into goal.

At this stage, it was difficult to see how Hibs would recover -- but with some changes at the back they began to look much more organised.

Graeme Donald came on at the start of the second half in place of Andy Millen and Graham Love went to the centre of the defence and suddenly there was a more cohesive look about the side and they began, too, to throw men forward.

Fifteen minutes after half-time they equalised.

Again, the goal was earned by the amount of pressure Hibs had exerted.

Gareth Evans broke through into the Hearts' penalty box and then fired a low ball across the goalmouth.

Twenty-one-year-old Donald raced on to the ball and hammered a low angled shot to the far corner of the net.

Now Hearts were up against it -- and their cause was not helped when Mackay was sent off.

Evans had challenged John Millar, who had come on at half-time in place of Gary Locke.

The Hibs' player went down and Mackay came in looking for retribution, stamped on his opponent, and went off.

Within nine minutes Hearts felt his loss in the worst possible way.

A long ball out of defence was brought down perfectly by Michael O'Neill just inside his own half.

He flighted the ball forward, beyond the Hearts' defence, and Keith Wright gathered it before squaring it to the unmarked Pat McGinlay, who had the easiest of tap-ins to put his team in front for the first time.

There is no doubt they should have remained there.

They had most of the ball, and the better chances.

With just four minutes left, for example, O'Neill was clear in the box and then mis-kicked and allowed Hearts to clear the threat.

Then came that late, late goal from Robertson.

Hearts were awarded a free kick from some 30 yards from goal.

John Colquhoun played it forward short and Robertson came from his marker and headed the ball on.

The Hibs' defenders reached it, tried to scramble it away, but only succeeded in sending it back to the little hitman who snapped a fierce shot past Leighton to give Hearts a point that they must have believed, even themselves, that they had lost.

And suddenly it was the visiting fans who sang in the new stand where they had been sitting silently for so much of the second 45 minutes.

Hibs will see this as an opportunity missed, because they had the chance of victory, and could have underlined their credentials as potential championship challengers this season.

Taken from the Herald