Williamson hails team spirit as heart-breaking derby run ends

STUART BATHGATE

HAVING been on the receiving end of late goals so often in the Edinburgh derby, Hibs manager Bobby Williamson was delighted to have turned the tables on Hearts yesterday. That his team won after having played much of the game a man down made the victory all the sweeter for Williamson, who was celebrating his first win over Hearts since taking charge at Easter Road.

"We got there in the end," he said. "It wasn’t easy, but I’m very pleased for the fans. That’s why you’re involved in football - it gives you a great buzz.

"It was always going to be an uphill struggle after the sending-off, but the spirit was good. The players had to prove to themselves that they could get a win over Hearts."

There were seven bookings as well as Grant Brebner’s straight red card, and although both sets of fans were incensed from time to time by referee Stuart Dougal’s decisions, Williamson, wisely in retrospect of the consequences that have befallen other managers to have recently scrutinised referees, confined himself to questioning one ruling by the official.

"The referee will decide for himself whether he had a decent game or not. I thought Grant was one of our better players while he was on, and I didn’t see it as a straight red. A booking yes, but not a sending-off.

"Grant was disappointed because he didn’t think it was a sending-off either - the young lad was 40 yards from goal and it wasn’t a goalscoring opportunity. Thankfully we got the three points."

Ian Murray, the influential Hibs captain who covered every inch of the Easter Road pitch, concurred with his boss’s reaction, and admitted he found fault with more than the Brebner dismissal. "The sending-off was very harsh, and the booking of [Hearts’] Scott Severin was very harsh too," said Murray, before going off for treatment on a hamstring strain which may rule him out of the Scotland Under-21 squad.

"It’s a great result for us," he added. "We can’t go overboard, because it’s only one win, but it was a great time to score, and brilliant for Garry O’Connor to get the goal - it gave him a lot of confidence."

Craig Levein betrayed a glum look upon emerging from the visitors’ dressing-room after the match and accepted that, having had the extra man, his own side had not done enough to press home their advantage and win the game.

"Now I know what it must have felt like for Bobby last year," the Hearts manager said.

"Looking at the game I can’t complain. The willingness to keep going shown by the Hibs players was enough to merit them a win.

"The problem when one side is down to ten men is that the team with 11 expect to win. We expected to win, and didn’t do enough to make sure we did. We didn’t put them under enough pressure."

Levein is already in bother with the Scottish Football Association for failing to pay a fine imposed for comments made about referee Dougie McDonald last season, but he had much sympathy for Dougal yesterday.

He added: "Derby matches are difficult because you have two teams really intent on winning and it’s very competitive.

"You can look at it different ways - if you don’t clamp down things could get out of control and if you do clamp down then there are going to be cards.

"It’s not a game that I would like to referee."

Taken from the Scotsman