BENJI WILL CALM DOWN - MOWBRAY

By Ronnie Esplin, PA Sport

Hibernian manager Tony Mowbray will lay down the law for striker Abdessalam Benjelloun after his goal celebrations sparked controversy in the 2-1 win over Hearts at Easter Road.

A 16th-minute Derek Riordan strike had given Hibs the lead but Roman Bednar hit back on the stroke of half time after pouncing on a mistake by Hibs goalkeeper Zbigniew Malkowski.

However, with 12 minutes left, the Moroccan, who had replaced Ivan Sproule on the hour mark, drove home from 16 yards before running the length of the pitch towards the Jambos fans in a manic celebration, which earned him a booking.

Now Mowbray has promised to ensure his next goal for the club is celebrated in more subdued fashion.

He said: "We were all concerned when he headed towards the Hearts fans. But I think it was a cultural thing, there was no malice in it.

"He's a fantastic kid and I'm assuming that, if he scored in Morocco, he would have down that.

"But that will be the last time he does that, I can assure everybody and he will be told that.

"We can smile about it now and it can be construed as inciting the fans, but it wasn't premeditated."

Fellow goalscorer Riordan sympathised with his team-mate.

He said: "I didn't see him until I turned round. I was celebrating at one end and he was up at the other. It was the fastest I have seen him run.

"He was obviously delighted to be playing in a big match like that and get a goal.

"I don't know if he's played a lot of professional football or not, but it's probably just the atmosphere which got him like that."

Hearts interim manager Valdas Ivanauskas refused to answer questions about the absence of Scotland defender Andy Webster, who was left out for the third successive game with speculation mounting over his future.

However, the Lithuanian was willing to talk "only about football" and insists he had enough talent on the pitch to win the match.

Ivanauskas said: "I said before the game how important it was, but it was as if the players didn't know how important it was.

"I'm very angry about this. I trusted the players we had, but 45 minutes is nothing, we have to work hard for 90 minutes. The performance wasn't good enough."

Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon revealed why he was so angry at Hibs' opening goal which had more than a hint of offside about it.

Easter Road striker Steven Fletcher appeared to be in Gordon's line of vision as Riordan controlled then fired the ball past the Scotland keeper.

Gordon said: "I told the linesman I thought he was offside because he (Fletcher) ran across my line of vision. I said to him he was interfering with play.

"If he had touched it, he would have been offside. The linesman said it was his call and he didn't think he was interfering with play.

"I don't think the referee even noticed, I don't think he thought there was anything wrong with the goal.

"I've nothing against the referee or the linesmen, I shook all their hands after the game, if that's the way they saw it then, fair enough, maybe we will get it next week."

Taken from sportinglife.com