Collins guides Hibernian to first League cup win over rivals

In the 60 years of the League Cup tournament, Hibernian have never defeated their Edinburgh rivals. Collins, the rookie manager who turned his back on retirement under the Monaco sunshine to return to his first club, enjoyed an Edinburgh derby baptism.

It may have been far from the total football that Collins desires, but Rob Jones’s thumping 32nd-minute shot decided an ugly quarter-final and gave the Hibernian fans a measure of revenge for losing last season’s Tennent’s Scottish Cup semi-final to the side from across the city.

Hearts rarely discovered the heights of last Saturday at Celtic, never mind last season. They barely threatened Zibi Malkowski, the goalkeeper whose errors proved costly in the last derby three weeks ago. Collins vowed to stand by the Pole but there was not even a flutter last night.

However, it would not be Hearts if there was not some sort row behind the scenes. Julien Brellier, who has been virtually ostracised by Vladimir Romanov, the owner, since refusing to sign a new contract. The French midfield player was left out of the squad yet again and left Easter Road in a taxi before the game, according to radio reports.

There was no shortage of passion but, unlike recent derbies, there was a scarcity of entertainment. Hibernian needed lengthy periods of treatment for Kevin Thomson and Michael Stewart for late tackles and the latter was replaced by Guilleme Beuzelin after just 13 minutes.

Stewart’s role as a midfield prompter had already been evident with one fine pass to David Murphy that allowed the left back to deliver a cutback for Chris Killen, whose shot was denied by the intervention of Christophe Berra.

However, just before the half-hour, the hosts started to find Ivan Sproule regularly scampering down the right wing. One cross picked out Killen but the striker wasted his effort at getting in front of Ibrahim Tall with a threatrical dive instead of pursuing the chance.

When Killen kept his mind on the football, he was more productive. He gathered a Beuzelin pass in the 31st minute and forced Craig Gordon to beat his fierce shot wide for Hibernian’s fifth corner of the contest. From Merouane Zemmama’s flat delivery, Steven Pressley and Berra got tangled up and the ball fell to Jones who thrashed his shot into the roof of the net from ten yards to break the deadlock.

Hibernian now played with a new sense of purpose and ought to have doubled their lead six minutes later after a sublime move. Scott Brown’s surging run from his own half saw him exchange passes with Zemmama, moving on to the return and eluding the Hearts defence. The Scotland midfield player had just Gordon to beat from six yards but the Hearts goalkeeper stuck out his right leg for a superb save.

Moments before the interval, Murphy curled a 25-yard free kick narrowly wide of Gordon’s post and the half-time whistle was greeted with loud acclaim by the home crowd.

The early stages of the second half saw Zemmama squander several good positions. He wasted one free kick from the edge of the box and was then spoken to by Calum Murray, the referee, after a dive after brief contact from Andrius Velicka that ought to have earned a yellow card.

The introduction of the bullish Nerjus Barasa for Neilson only served to increase the foul count as the Lithuanian contributed several illegal efforts.

From one foul on Beuzelin, Zemmama whipped in a free kick that was glanced narrowly wide of the far post by Jones. Hibernian’s corner count moved into double figures, with Barasa heading one over his own bar before Thomson tested Gordon with a shot.

Collins replaced the tiring Sproule with Steven Fletcher, who performed one outrageous trick to fool Tall, only to see his cross for Killen cut out, Then Beuzelin eluded Pressley and almost ran out of steam before clipping his effort wide.

HIBERNIAN (4-3-3): Z Malkowski — S Whittaker, S Martis, R Jones, D Murphy — S Brown, M Stewart (sub: G Beuzelin, 13min), K Thomson — I Sproule (sub: S Fletcher, 73), C Killen, M Zemmama (sub: A Benjelloun, 90). Substitutes not used: C Hogg, A McNeil. Booked: Murphy, Killen, Thomson.

HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN (4-5-1): C Gordon — I Tall, C Berra, S Pressley, J Goncalves — R Neilson (sub: N Barasa, 55), B Aguiar, P Hartley, M Zaliukas (sub: J Makela, 83), S Mikoliunas (sub: J Mole, 65) — A Velicka. Substitutes not used: T Fyssas, S Banks. Booked: Zaliukas, Mikoliunas, Tall.

Referee: C Murray.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk