Hibernian self-destruct after stirring comeback

Hearts 3 Hibernian 2

Heart of Midlothian yesterday took advantage of the selfdestruction of their bitter rivals, Hibernian, to edge an exhilarating derby encounter.
Having watched his side mount a laudable comeback to level the scores at two apiece, John Collins, the Easter Road manager, then looked on in consternation as his side once again proved the architects of their own downfall.

After claiming an assist in his side’s opening goal, Dean Shiels converted the penalty that cancelled out Hearts’ advantage as his side looked destined to overrun their hosts. However, an incomprehensible barge on Craig Gordon, the goalkeeper, in the follow up to the spot kick resulted in Shiels being ordered off and the Leith side facing an awesome task just to stay in the game — and so it proved. Hearts made the most of their extra body to stretch their opponent’s defence and, eventually, summon a dramatic late winner from Saulius Mikoliunas.

The Hibernian manager later revealed his disgust at what he deemed a “disappointing” refereeing decision and insisted his side would have gone on to take three points, had they kept their full compliment of players on the park.

“The linesman told me Dean was sent off for punching the Hearts goalkeeper, but that clearly didn’t happen as far as I could see,” Collins lamented. “The boy was celebrating a derby equaliser and his momentum carried him into Gordon’s path, it was a disappointing decision from the referee. If we had 11 men on the park, we were the only team going to win it and, even when we were reduced to ten, we were still the only team trying to play football.”

However, Roman Bednar, the Hearts striker, disagreed with the Hibernian manager’s claim, and was adamant Shiels left Mike McCurry, the referee, with no choice. “I don’t think Shiels punched Craig, but he did push him and you can’t behave like that on the park,” the Czech Republic international said.

Hearts made seven changes to the side that defeated Dundee United 1-0 on Saturday. Most notably, Gordon, the captain, was reinstated after having been sidelined as a result of internal disciplinary action, while the club’s reportedly fully fit vice-captain, Robbie Neilson, was curiously frozen out.

Michael Stewart, Hibernian’s on-form midfield player, himself a former Hearts player, this week described the recent events at both of Edinburgh’s Bank of Scotland Premierleague representatives as a “circus act”, however, amid the off-field performances, there was a match to be contested and, thankfully, it didn’t take long to burst into life.

Indeed, the opening goal arrived after just two minutes when Bednar burst past David Murphy on the right wing before cutting into the Hibernian 18-yard box and drilling an inviting ball across the face of Zbigniew Malkowski’s goal. A combination of guile and pure desire allowed Hearts’ talisman, Paul Hartley, to edge ahead of Steven Whittaker and direct the ball into the net.

By that time the battle lines had been clearly drawn in midfield and a spate of ferocious challenges resulted in McCurry being forced to issue three bookings in the opening five minutes and, in truth, he could easily have been less lenient. Just three minutes into the second period, Hibernian were punished again when Hartley’s curling 22-yard free kick was mishandled by Malkowski only for Edgaris Jankauskas to sweep the ball into the net.

However, to their credit, the Easter Road side battled on and were rewarded seven minutes later when Chris Killen bulleted a header past Gordon from Shiels’ driven free kick.

Then on the hour mark, gutsy Hibernian completed a remarkable comeback when Nerijus Barasa was adjudged to have fouled Shiels as he charged into the 18-yard box.

The former Arsenal man dusted himself down and calmly slotted the penalty, but allowed his emotions to get the better of him as his forward momentum appeared to carry him into a collision with Gordon. McCurry consulted his far-side linesman, Willie Dishington, and promptly ordered the dismayed Shiels off.

“The linesman accused me of punching Craig Gordon and I totally deny that, I was running to get the ball,” Shiels said afterwards.

Hibernian’s woes were compounded on 69 minutes when substitute Andrius Velicka surged down the left flank and picked out Mikoliunas 16-yards from goal for the Lithuanian to lash the ball into the roof of Malkowski’s net.

Hibernian (4-2-3-1): Z Malkowski — S Whittaker, S Martis, R Jones, D Murphy — G Beuzelin, M Stewart — A Benjalloun, S Brown, D Shiels — C Killen. Substitutes not used: A McNeil, C Hogg, L Stevenson, S Glass, K McCann, J McCluskey, R Campbell. Booked: Stewart, Whittaker, Brown, Beuzelin. Sent off: Shiels.

Referee: M McCurry

Taken from timesonline.co.uk