Hearts pay for chasing Barca

Only the most blinkered of Hearts fans could argue that the better team lost and though it's too early in the season to form a judgement on either squad, you can be certain some supporters will do that regardless.

I mentioned in yesterday's column I felt Hibs would never get a better opportunity to win at Tynecastle and that was written long before I knew Craig Gordon was off to the north-east of England to have talks with Sunderland. People may say that having Steve Banks in goal for Hearts made no difference to the result and in one respect I agree. But to lose your captain and your best player on the day of the game is hardly likely to help matters, particularly when you think what a presence he was in the dressing-room.

I feared for Hearts after I saw them play Barcelona at Murrayfield ten days ago.To think, that was their last pre-season game to prepare for the match against Hibs and basically, they got the complete runaround for 90 minutes.

I know we're talking about arguably the best club side in the world, who are capable of doing that to most teams, but it was the worst way possible to get ready for their first competitive match of the season, especially the Edinburgh derby.

Hibs on the other hand had the ideal run-up to last night's game, playing progressively more difficult opponents in the shape of Stirling Albion, Livingston, Bolton and Middlesbrough.

On paper, they seemed to be peaking at just the right time and for the majority of last night's match it showed.

Being the home side, I think most of us expected Hearts to come flying out of the traps as is often the case in derbies, but last night the exact opposite was true.

Both David Murphy and Steven Fletcher combined brilliantly to set up Brian Kerr for what proved to be the only goal of the game after only two minutes and it seemed like Hearts spent the next 20 minutes trying to recover their composure.

There can be no hiding the fact the main culprit for Hibs' winning goal was Christos Karipidis. He made an elementary error when trying to clear the ball and at times he looked like a full-back playing in the centre of defence.

The mistake only highlighted how much the suspended Christophe Berra was missed. He may only be 22, but already he has developed into one of the best central defenders in the country and Hearts will be grateful he is available this coming weekend at Pittodrie.

Hibs are a very difficult side to pin down when they play at the top of their game, but midway through the first half their passing went astray and at that moment it looked like the home team could find a way back into it.

Under the promptings of ex-Hibs midfielder, Michael Stewart, they started to dominate possession, but for all that, their threat on the Hibs goal was minimal. One player who caught my eye in the first half was one of the new Lithuanian signings, Audrius Ksanavicius.

He took up some great positions in between Hibs' midfield and their back four and you often find centre-backs feel uncomfortable when a striker plays in the hole as they don't like to come out of the back four in case they leave gaps for midfield runners to exploit.

Unfortunately, the other Lithuanian striker, Ricardas Beniusis, didn't appear to be on the same wavelength as his compatriot and whilst it's unfair to judge a player on one performance, he looks like he'll need time to get accustomed to the vagaries of the SPL.

The problem is football supporters are rarely a patient bunch and once they've made their mind up about a player, they don't usually change it.

There were some Hearts players who I felt came out of the game with pass marks. Steve Banks and Robbie Neilson were steady as usual. Marius Zaliukas made very few defensive mistakes and Lee Wallace handled Merouane Zemmama comfortably enough as well as offering a threat going forward.

Neither of Hearts' wide players made much of an impact so for me the pick of the bunch was Michael Stewart. He ran himself into the ground, so much so that he suffered cramp late on in the game.

His only problem was that he felt if Hearts were to turn things around he'd need to start the attack and finish it as well.

Hibs had the best players in most, if n
ot all, areas of the park.

The young goalkeeper, Yves Ma-Kalamby, looks a real find for John Collins. He was effortless in everything he did and it must come as some relief to the Hibs fans to finally have a reliable stopper behind the defence.

The whole back four were outstanding throughout.

For some time now, Hibs' manager has been waxing lyrical about Kevin McCann and, on last night's performance, you can see why.

David Murphy's level of consistency since he arrived at Easter Road has been something to behold and I'll be amazed if he's not Hibs' next big-money transfer target for clubs both north and south of the border.

Brian Kerr had an excellent match from start to finish but the player who caught my eye was Abdessalam Benjelloun. He looks much leaner than last season and because of that his all-round play is much sharper which can only benefit everyone at Hibs.

Taken from the Scotsman