Sweet revenge for Hearts in this demolition derby

HEARTS 4 - Hartley 27, 44 (pen); Skacel 41; Elliot 50
HIBERNIAN 1 - O'Connor 58

JUST when you thought the bearpit had been silenced, the news of Celtic's travails hit Tynecastle and the place roared once more. Cue more whooping and hollering, more goading of the demoralised visitors and more days ahead of dreaming the dream of a title win.

For Hearts, this was a keynote day. Had they lost again, having gone down to Kilmarnock last week, the slippery slope beckoned. Now that they had won, and emphatically so, they had reaffirmed their intention to chase the leaders all the way. "Celtic," their supporters said as they left the stadium last night. "We can still catch 'em."

Hearts scored three goals in the last 20 minutes of the first half, started the second a man to the good - Gary Smith was sent-off at 3-0 - and hit Hibs with a fourth six minutes after the restart. Thunderous stuff, all of which leaves Hearts eight points behind Celtic. It's still a mountain but it's not Everest.

Rix's team were exceptional at various points and it was easy to spot their main men. Rudi Skacel scored one, was brought down for Paul Hartley's penalty and set up Calum Elliot and Hartley again for the other two. He was magnificent. Hartley, too, was a marvellous force driving through the midfield.

Hibs were crestfallen. It's incredible to think that Tony Mowbray, only in charge at Hibs for 18 months, has already come up against five different Hearts managers in these barmy derby matches. What is almost as incredible is that before this mortifying experience his team - so impressive in winning the season's first capital derby - had been reeling in their great rivals in the league despite winning just two of their previous eight games and having gone three months without an away win. Given the quality of some of their football, that is a quite an amazing run of failure on the road. Of course, it all went horribly pear-shaped here, but in the early stages Hibs dominated, completely.

Hearts people will have banished it all from their memory but Hibs had three chances inside the opening 15 minutes and if the last of them, a glancing header from Garry O'Connor, didn't cause Craig Gordon a great deal of concern, the others most certainly did. The first tremor came after Julien Breillier hauled down Scott Brown - an incident that brought a booking but from which Brown never really recovered, being replaced five minutes before half-time.

Derek Riordan put the Brellier free-kick on to O'Connor's head but his effort was pushed away by Gordon. Three minutes later the roles were reversed, O'Connor crossing from the right for Riordan to test Gordon with a fizzing shot. The goalkeeper did well to beat it away and then stretched to gather another O'Connor header soon after.

Hearts were not looking too clever at this point. There was much talk about their new signing, Chris Hackett, during the week. Hackett, it seems, was clutched from under Mowbray's nose and was supposed to make his debut yesterday. He was nowhere to be found. Nor were Neil McCann, Edgaras Jankauskas and Roman Bednar - all injured - and Steven Pressley, who was serving the second of his two-game ban. For a while it looked like they would miss their absent friends but then the game turned. And how.

After 25 minutes, the ridiculoulsy good Skacel cut in from the left and teed-up Hartley for the smartest of finishes. As soon as the goal went in, Hearts took on the look of hungry men. Their work-rate was monumental, their passing crisp, their confidence levels so high that Elliot's moment of pure slapstick didn't knock a thing out of them.

Elliot is a real talent and he played well yesterday. He would later get a fine goal which was just as well for he missed a sitter when the score was still 1-0. Hibs did their best to help him, it has to be said. Kevin Thomson blundered by giving him the ball on the edge of his own penalty area and then Smith made a feeble attempt at a tackle. When the defender fell over, Elliot was one-on-one with Brown. He pulled it wide from close to the penalty spot.

His spell in purgatory was brief. Five minutes before the end of the first half, Hartley sent a free-kick from the left soaring to Hibs's back post, the ball breaking to Skacel off Christophe Berra. Skacel rammed it into the ground and up and over Brown's reach.

With Tynecastle shaking with excitement, two goals became three a few minutes later. Again it was Skacel at the centre of it, running into the heart of the Hibs defence before being taken down by Gary Caldwell. The penalty was put away with aplomb by Hartley. In the blink of an eye we had a rout on our hands.

Three-down in the first half of a derby. It doesn't get much worse than that, right? Wrong. Before Mike McCurry could bring an end to proceedings he was forced to draw his red card from his pocket and stick it in Gary Smith's face. For elbowing Saulius Mikoliunas square in the mush, Smith got precisely what he deserved.

So the mayhem abated awhile. Mowbray spoke of his salvage operation in the dressing room. "Keep it tight at the back lads. Ease yourself in. Maybe pinch a goal. Leave here with a bit of pride." So much for his modest ambition. Six minutes into the new half, they conceded a fourth and it came off another surge from Skacel that just heaped more discomfort on poor Steven Whitaker's head. Whitaker was tormented by Skacel all day.

Skacel picked up the ball just inside the Hibs half and took off towards the left side. He did Whitaker for pace and arced his way into the penalty box, sliding a cross to the near post. Elliot, timing his run to perfection, belted it home.

Tynecastle erupted in song once more, pointing out to the visiting support, in the language of the street, that their team weren't exactly bringing a lot to the party. Hibs replied, quickly, with a goal from O'Connor that went in off a post but that didn't dampen the mood any. For Hearts, the news of Celtic's draw was the cherry on top of a quite stunning day.

Taken from the Scotsman