Levein thrilled by derby 'win'

STUART BATHGATE

HEARTS and Hibs can’t go on meeting like this. Surely one day soon the Edinburgh derby will do the decent thing and be a match of few chances and no goals.

There was indeed a time when the fixture had a reputation for scoreless tedium, but this season each of the three matches so far has been enthralling in its own way.

More enthralling, of course, for Hearts fans, who celebrated a 5-1 win back in August and the late show in November when last-gasp goals gave them a 2-1 victory.

Craig Levein, for one, had expected yesterday’s match to be a bit more mundane. "I thought last time was special when we won with two late goals at Easter Road, but that was incredible," the Hearts coach said. "I thought it was a travesty when we were 4-2 down. We had lots of the game, played most of the football and had more of the chances.

"When we went 4-2 down I had a wee feeling we wouldn’t win," Levein added, smiling. It was then pointed out to him that his hunch had been correct, for his team did not win, but he had the happy air of a man who was ready to celebrate. Eighteen-year-old Graham Weir’s two injury-time goals had made it feel like a victory for Hearts all right.

"The team have shown great character on numerous occasions this season, and they’ve pulled it out for the supporters again," Levein went on. "It makes me immensely proud to be associated with them."

Invited to reflect on the decision - an inspired one, as it turned out - to bring Weir off the bench, the coach said modestly he had made two other substitutions, after which his side had lost two goals.

Weir displayed similar self-effacement. "I’m just happy to get the goals," the striker said. "I’m not an instant hero."

It might have been pointed out to him that he was wrong, and his two strikes made him just as much a hero for the Hearts fans as Mark de Vries’s four on his derby debut had made him. But it seemed churlish to argue.

It also seemed churlish of Bobby Williamson to complain about the amount of time added on. As expected, the Hibs manager was not exactly exuding seasonal bonhomie, and he seemed to think everything barring a couple of lapses by his side was to blame for the outcome.

"Four minutes added on and we played five and a half," Williamson complained. "The game could have been over for a wee while, but you’ve just got to abide by that. The game stopped for a bottle coming out of their end."

Indeed. Which is why the referee stopped the game. Stoppage time within stoppage time: it happens.

That is not to excuse the perpetrator of this incident, or the Hearts fans who ran on to the pitch at the end. But it would be nice if one day Williamson were to give up being a curmudgeon and act with better grace towards his opponents.

"I felt we were coasting at two: I didn’t see Hearts creating many chances," he went on. "Then we got a penalty given against us when Nick Colgan said he didn’t touch the lad. These decisions cost you. I felt we should have had a penalty when McKenna handled the ball above his head."

Williamson refused to hold his defence culpable at the two late goals, but Craig James, one of Hibs’ goalscorers, was willing to hold his hand up on behalf of the team.

"Lack of concentration at the end of the game, that’s all it was really," said James. "You’ve got to go to the final whistle. You never know what’s going to happen in a game."

Taken from the Scotsman