Hearts 4 Hibernian 1

By Ronnie Esplin, PA Sport

Hearts breathed fresh life into their Bank of Scotland Premier League title aspirations with a 4-1 drubbing of city rivals Hibernian at Tynecastle.

A double by Paul Hartley either side of a Rudi Skacel goal gave the home side a three-goal half-time lead over the rattled Hibees who were reduced to 10 men when defender Gary Smith was sent off just before the break for an elbow on Saulius Mikoliunas.

Five minutes after the interval Jambos' teenage striker Calum Elliot made it 4-0 before Garry O'Connor put some respectability on the scoreline with an impressive 57th-minute drive.

With Celtic drawing 3-3 at home with Dundee United, the Hoops' lead over the second-placed Jambos was cut to eight points and on this form Graham Rix's men will push the SPL leaders all the way to the end of the season.

The 126th competitive Edinburgh derby, however, had an unseemly pre-amble to it. Before the match there was a minute's applause for former Jambos chairman Wallace Mercer who died earlier in the month with cancer. However, many of the visiting fans in the Roseburn Stand, still peeved by Mercer's failed bid to merge the two capital clubs almost 16 years ago, pointedly turned their back on the tribute.

Amidst that unsavoury incident, there was no hint of the drama that was about to unfold.

It was Jambos keeper Craig Gordon who had to make the first save of the game after six minutes when he threw himself smartly to his right to save a powerful O'Connor header from a whipped-in Derek Riordan free-kick.

Then Gordon pulled off an even better save moments later when he punched away Riordan's first-time drive after the Hibs striker had been set up by O'Connor 16 yards from goal.

However, the game changed quite markedly in the 26th minute when the home side took the lead through Hartley.

The tireless Skacel made his way to the bye-line and cut the ball back and there was the ex-Hibs player to stab it in from close range at the front post.

Not for the first time this season the Czech player was booked for over-exuberant goal celebrations.

In the 36th minute the home side spurned a great chance to double their lead.

Lone striker Elliot somehow found himself with acres of space then shrugged off a poor challenge from the isolated Hibs defender Smith but with only Simon Brown to beat, the teenager panicked and shot wide of the target from 16 yards out.

Four minutes later, however, Hearts did go two goals up. Hartley swung in a free-kick from wide on the left which was knocked out to the edge of the box inadvertently by Jambos stopper Christophe Berra and Skacel followed it up to thunder a left-footed shot through a crowd of players and past Brown.

As Tynecastle rocked, there was more celebrations three minutes later when Hibs defender Gary Caldwell hauled Skacel down for a penalty as the marauding Czech midfielder shaped to drive home number three. Hartley fired the spot-kick high past the helpless Brown.

More drama ensued just before the half-time whistle when Smith was shown a straight red card for appearing to elbow Mikoliunas. The visitors looked in danger of a total collapse at that point.

It seemed that damage-limitation would dominate the visitors' tactics after the interval and unsurprisingly the 10-man Leithers found themselves immediately on the defensive.

The Gorgie side had no intention of sitting on their three-goal lead and indeed they added to it only five minutes after the interval.

Skacel all too easily beat Easter Road full-back Steven Whittaker down the left and when his cut back came into the six-yard box Elliot had the easiest of tasks to slip the ball past the helpless Brown at the near post.

It was a carbon copy of Hartley's opener and it appeared that the Gorgie side had the opportunity to exceed the 4-0 drubbing they handed out to their rivals at the beginning of the season.

However, the shell-shocked visitors stemmed the tide a little in the 57th minute when O'Connor turned and drilled a 25-yard drive past Gordon and into the corner of the net.

There was no real prospect of a comeback but just after the hour mark Sproule twisted and turned inside the Hearts penalty area before forcing the Hearts keeper into another good save from his left-footed drive.

The home fans were encouraging their heroes to go looking for more goals but there was a surprising reluctance from Hearts to push home their numerical advantage.

The game, in fact, petered out with both sides seemingly happy enough to run down the clock without further disruption to the scoreline.

Teams

Hearts Gordon, Neilson, Webster, Berra, Fyssas,Mikoliunas (Cesnauskis 46), Hartley, Brellier, Skacel,Johnson (McAllister 77), Elliot (Pospisil 69).

Subs Not Used: Banks, Wallace, Tall, Mole.

Booked: Brellier.

Goals: Hartley 27, Skacel 41, Hartley 44 pen, Elliot 50.

Hibernian Simon Brown, Whittaker, Caldwell, Smith, Murphy,Sproule, Stewart, Scott Brown (Fletcher 40), Thomson,O'Connor (Killen 79), Riordan (Konde 46).

Subs Not Used: Marshall, Hogg, McCluskey, Morrow.

Sent Off: Smith (45).

Booked: Murphy.

Goals: O'Connor 58.

Att: 17,371

Ref: M McCurry (Scotland).

Taken from sportinglife.com