Derby day hopes left marooned

By DAVID HARDIE
Hibs 0 Hearts 1
PRIDE comes before a fall and Hibs, flying high after their CIS Insurance Cup triumph, hit earth with an almighty bump as arch-rivals Hearts gatecrashed the party to leave the after-match parading of the trophy a rather forlorn affair.

Gone were the heady celebrations of Hampden two Sundays ago, John Collins' players long-faced and leaden-footed as they returned to the Easter Road pitch to display the trophy to their fans, their appetite for the occasion gone after Marius Zaliukas' late strike gave Hearts their first victory on the other side of the city in more than four years.

If the jubilant scenes at the maroon end of the ground were perhaps a little overdone - three points on offer rather than a piece of silverware - as the Hearts players cavorted in front of their supporters then it was understandable, skipper Craig Gordon revealing that after some 180 matches for the Gorgie outfit this victory was, incredibly, his first in Leith.

Tempering the joy was a palpable sense of relief among both the Tynecastle players and their supporters, the trip across the Capital having been made with more than a little foreboding, their build-up to the fourth derby having been in stark contrast to that of their near-neighbours.

While Hibs had a fortnight to savour lifting their first trophy in 16 years, Hearts had that period to fret not only over their 4-0 defeat by Dundee United last time out but the very nature of that hammering.

So little surprise, or excuses, for Hearts lining up with a defensive formation, four defenders, five strung across midfield to leave Andrius Velicka a sole striker with the visiting side's intentions clear, to frustrate and make life as difficult as possible.

It was a formation designed to salvage a point and, as it happened, to try to sneak a goal at the other end. As Collins admitted afterwards: "They tried to keep it tight to stop us from scoring and from that point of view they did very well."

As difficult as Hearts made it by attempting to stifle Hibs in the middle of the park, Collins agreed that his side didn't work Craig Gordon often enough with Hampden heroes Abdessalam Benjelloun and Steven Fletcher unable to exert any influence whatsoever, leaving the Scotland star to deal with no more than a string of straight-forward saves.

He said: "Our weakness was probably in the final third, our final pass was not good enough. Back to middle we were very good, Scott Brown was different class and the back four were in total control.

"But games are won in the opposition penalty area and we were not good enough. I think both our strikers were a bit tired, Benji had been in Rwanda and Steven had gone halfway round the world for a friendly."

That said, Hearts also did little to threaten Andy McNeil in the Hibs goal, an early shot from Andy Driver competently dealt with but, alas, with goalkeeping mistakes having cost the Easter Road outfit dearly in the previous two SPL derbies, it was another blunder at the back which left them empty-handed again.

Zibi Malkowski may have been culpable on those occasions but McNeil was clearly aware of what his error had meant, the Scotland Under-20 star cutting a disconsolate figure as he was introduced for that muted lap of the pitch afterwards.

Whether it was down to the fact he'd had little to do and felt compelled to become involved, only McNeil can tell but in coming for Driver's free-kick he only succeeded in batting the ball down to the feet of Zaliukas who looked as stunned as anyone as he was left with the space to steer a low shot in at the Scotland Under-20 star's right-hand post.

Collins, however, was unwilling to point the finger, saying simply: "He will know himself."

The Hibs manager, though, was clearly frustrated at the manner in which the game wasn't allowed to flow with referee Kenny Clark regularly reaching for his whistle to interrupt the flow of the match which suited Hearts' physically robust approach more than the home side.

The free-kicks awarded did offer Hibs numerous opportunities to deliver the ball into Hearts penalty area in the direction of 6ft 7in skipper Rob Jones who continually found his path illegally blocked by the hands and arms of Zaliukas who was all over him like a rash, his only intention being to prevent the defender making contact rather than attempting to clear.

Asked how many penalties he felt his side should have had, Collins diplomatically answered: "It's the referee's job to deal with that, I cannot control it. It does not matter what I think, the referee didn't give us those decisions."

But Jones' fellow central defender Chris Hogg believed that had Zaliukas, booked after committing five fouls in the opening 20 minutes, been guilty of such offences elsewhere on the pitch a free-kick would have resulted.

He said: "It's part and parcel of football these days.

"Things go on in the box which go unpunished when perhaps they would be in open play. It's difficult for referees to see everything that goes on. You just have to get on with things like that."

Unfortunately for Hibs the one occasion when Jones did manage to free himself of the clutches of Zaliukas he found team-mate Guillaume Beuzelin getting his head to David Murphy's free-kick in front of him, the Frenchman succeeding only in nodding the ball over the bar when, given his record this season, the Hibs captain would have been regarded as odds-on to score.

A goal then, 56 minutes into the match, would have forced Hearts into a rethink of their tactics and perhaps allowed Hibs greater freedom but, as Collins and Tony Mowbray before him have said on many occasions, there are no rules which prevent a team from setting out to frustrate.

It's a tactic which Hibs have come up against on numerous occasions, particularly at Easter Road, but as yet the players haven't found an answer when the opposition are "in their faces."

Defeat in any derby is, of course, numbing, but this was one which Hibs had approached in the knowledge that a victory followed by a win in their game in hand, away to St Mirren on Wednesday night, would put them above high-spending Hearts.

Instead they find themselves eight points adrift, their hopes of overhauling third-placed Aberdeen rapidly receding while Hearts remain elusively out of reach.

Hogg said: "It was a bit of a sore one. I'm killing myself inside because we've lost a game we should not have lost."

The former Ipswich Town star had an angry exchange with Velicka as the Hearts player raced with his team-mates towards Easter Road's South Stand, less than full of Tynecastle fans, but he insisted there was nothing to it, words said in the heat of the moment.

Jubilant Hearts fans held up the presentation of the CIS Cup for almost 45 minutes as they refused to leave the ground, but Hogg was delighted to see so many Hibs supporters remain behind to greet not only today's team but members of the 1972 and 1991 sides which also lifted the trophy.

He said: "We had to put on a brave face. It was nice for the fans to see the trophy. They are fully behind us and to see so many of them staying in the stadium after a result like that was great."

Taken from the Scotsman