EIGHT BEATS SEVEN ANY DAY; Rivals serve up thriller to leave 1973 in shade

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Byline: DAVID McCARTHY

HEARTS 4 HIBS 4

CALL off any match of the season competition. The award was won at Tynecastle yesterday as Hearts and Hibs served up a game that will not be bettered between now and May.

It's a good job they have a winter break coming up because these players will need every minute of it to recharge batteries drained in a quite incredible draw that will live in the memory for as long as the match Hibs won 30 years ago.

It was 2-2 with three minutes left, Hearts having dragged back the two- goal lead Hibs carved out in just 16 minutes.

What happened next is the stuff of football folklore. Hibs went 3-2 up, then 4- 2 as the fourth official held up the board to signal four minutes of injury time.

Then a wee ginger headed Hearts kid launched himself into Tynecastle legend.

Graeme Weir, who scored the winner against Dundee last week and had only just come on, got one back almost immediately and with almost the last kick of the match volleyed home another.

It was heart-stopping stuff from first to last and although nobody ended up winning this football match, each and everyone of the 17,732 who witnessed it did - even if the Hibs fans went home numb with disappointment.

There might not have been a mention of 1973 in the Hearts programme but Ian Murray made sure those who were here remembered the 30th anniversary of Hibs' 7-0 win over their Edinburgh rivals.

The Easter Road kid had the year painted in green on the back of his head, a move which was lapped up by those who crossed the capital to witness the latest clash between these two in-form teams.

The weather might have been atrocious but it didn't stop Tynecastle housing a sell-out crowd which is testimony to the way both teams have gone about their business in recent months.

The match gave Hibs boss Bobby Williamson his fourth crack at beating his derby duck, having lost the previous three since joining from Kilmarnock last season.

He went into this one, however, without the services of skipper John O'Neil who was floored by a flu bug.

Hearts, too, were without an influential midfielder although Phil Stamp was fit enough to take a place on the bench.

The Jambos have been flying under Craig Levein recently, winning four of their last five games, and their fans clearly thought an extension of that run was on the cards.

Their confidence was soon to be shaken by the manner in which Hibs started the game. They went at Hearts like men possessed and within a minute won a corner when Alan Maybury knocked a header behind after good work from Jarko Wiss.

It was a signal of Hibs' intent and although Hearts looked occasionally dangerous in the opening spell the momentum was with the visitors.

Defensively, they were working as a unit and a superb block from Yannick Zambernardi denied Mark de Vries as he pulled the trigger. The importance of that tackle was underlined a minute later when Hibs, who would have been a goal down without it, went one up.

It came from a dreadful blunder from Maybury and although the conditions were poor, the Irishman can't use them as an excuse for a shocking header played back in the direction of Roddy McKenzie but with nowhere near enough purchase to reach the keeper.

Derek Townsley nipped in, stepped away from McKenzie and rolled the ball into the empty net.

It was no more than they deserved but it brought a positive response from Hearts and de Vries was denied by a close-range block from Nick Colgan as they tried to repair the damage.

Some hope. In the 16th minute Hibs surged two ahead and Levein would again have been raging at his defenders.

Craig James' free-kick into the box was struck with real quality but one of the smallest players on the park, Tam McManus, was allowed to steal in front of the defence and glance a header in off McKenzie's left-hand post.

It really was a cracking match and nobody expected that to be the last goal.

The tackles were flying in and McManus, maybe still pumped up by his goal, recklessly took out Steven Pressley and was booked. Stephane Mahe should have joined him after sprinting 20 yards to shove him but the Frenchman escaped.

The next goal was vital and Hearts had to score it to stay in the game. They did, in the 29th minute.

Jean-Louis Valois sent Andy Kirk sprinting into the box and when he was upended by the outrushing Colgan, referee Stuart Dougal pointed to the spot. The Irishman protested his innocence but it looked the right decision and as the keeper was clearly last man, he can think himself lucky he only got a yellow card.

Pressley successfully converted from the spot and Hearts sensed an escape route.

It was a first half nobody wanted to end but any fears the second period would be less exciting were unfounded.

Both teams ripped into each other and Hibs were so keen to get on with it, they started with 10 men. Paul Fenwick finally appeared about a minute in.

Hearts created the first opening when Neil McFarlane's ball into the box was helped on by Kirk and de Vries for Steven Boyack to head tamely into Colgan's arms.

Mixu Paatelainen was booked for a foul on Kevin McKenna and tempers were becoming increasingly frayed but Hearts were looking the likelier and sure enough, in 62 minutes, they grabbed the equaliser.

Kirk and de Vries dovetailed beautifully with the Ulsterman releasing the Dutchman with a perfectly weighted pass that allowed de Vries to drift past Colgan and steer the ball home from a tight angle.

Three quarters of the ground exploded in undiluted joy and their mood was further boosted when Stamp, who scored the winner in the last derby, replaced McFarlane who had done well in midfield.

Hibs also threw on fresh legs in the shape of Grant Brebner for Townsley.

Stamp took just three minutes to make his mark, literally, with a bad tackle on Gary Smith which earned him a booking.

With 15 minutes remaining, Levein made another midfield switch, Boyack being replaced by Stephen Simmons but almost immediately it was the visitors who came close when Paatelainen headed another wicked James cross just wide.

Simmons didn't take long to get himself booked for a foul on Murray and although chances were fewer and further between now, it remained as intense as ever.

Hibs were furious with nine minutes left when a bad header from Paatelainen clearly struck McKenna's arm which was above his head. They screamed for a penalty but it wasn't given.

McManus was subbed near the end because he was probably one foul away from being sent off having ridden his luck with a couple of challenges. He was raging at being replaced by Paco Luna but will probably thank his boss later.

Anyway, he was safely tucked away in the dug-out when James blasted in the 89th- minute goal that Hibs fans thought was the winner.

McKenna cleared a corner to the edge of the box where James lurked with intent and smashed a low shot through a ruck of players into the bottom of the net.

And with just seconds remaining the lead was doubled when Pressley handled inside the box - although it took the intervention of linesman Robert Johnston to give the penalty. Paatelainen took the kick, McKenzie saved it but Brebner rammed home the rebound.

So, 4-2 in injury time. Game over? Aye right.

Hearts charged up the field and Weir, who had replaced Kirk, stabbed home a loose ball from close range.

The kid wasn't finished there, however. In the dying seconds - the 94th minute - de Vries got to the byeline and swept over a cross which Weir volleyed emphatically into the corner of the net.

Williamson looked mortally wounded. The Hibs fans stood and stared while Hearts' people danced.

Finally it was over and, although Williamson will disagree, this was a match nobody deserved to lose.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Mark de Vries (Hearts)

HEARTS - McKenzie, Maybury, Pressley, McKenna, Mahe, Boyack (Simmons 75), Severin, MacFarlane (Stamp 65), Valois, de Vries, Kirk (Weir 82). Subs: Gordon, Webster. Booked: Stamp, Simmons, McKenna, Maybury.

HIBS - Colgan, Smith, Zambernardi, Fenwick, Orman, Wiss, Townsley (Brebner 65), Murray, James, McManus (Luna 86), Paatelainen. Subs: Caig, Jack, Doumbe. Booked: Zambernardi, McManus, Colgan, Paatelainen.

Referee: S Dougal.

Taken from the Daily Record