Hearts 1 Hibernian 0

Stephen Frail made just two changes from the team that contested the cup-tie against Motherwell seven days previously. Steve Banks returned in goal having recovered from the injury that kept him out of the game against the Steelmen, while there was something of a surprise in midfield where Jonsson was favoured ahead of Audrius Ksanavicius. The visitors, meanwhile, made just one change, finding space for new signing Ian Murray at left back. Paul Hanlon was the player to drop out.

Hearts' improved form - if not results - in the past three games, coupled with the visitors' return to winning ways in Mixu Paatelainen's first game against Caley Thistle last week meant that both sides came into the game more confident than might otherwise have been the case. And that was reflected in a bright opening spell that brought chances for either team.

Ruben Palazuelos takes on Dean Shiels

Yves Ma-Kalambay rose imperiously twice inside the first four minutes to safely grasp crosses from the right as Hearts pressed forward, the first from the sprightly Deividas Cesnauskis, the second from the supporting Robbie Neilson. At the other end, Benji stepped forward for a free kick wide on the right touchline and almost sneaked a shot past Banks at the near post. Fortunately for the home side, the Englishman was alert and dropped quickly to clutch.

Michael Stewart then had a good looking shot deflected wide for a corner, before Cesnauskis brought out the best from Ma-Kalambay with a speculative dipping volley from 25 yards which the big Belgian did extremely well to turn around his left-hand post. He bettered that a minute later, when Palazuelos drove goalward from a similar position. Ma-Kalambay had already committed himself before the ball was deflected, but still he somehow managed to stretch out his right hand and keep his goal intact.

It looked like the keeper was in top form, but he is nothing if not inconsistent as we have already seen this season. Sure enough on 19 minutes, he was at it again. After Jonsson's long-range effort was deflected wide, Andrew Driver struck a deep corner for Christophe Berra to head back across goal. Andrius Velicka was in sniffing as ever, but his goalward header should have been stopped easily by the keeper, who instead ended up fumbling it into his own net.

That was just what the home side had ordered, and it might have got even better a minute later when Velicka bust clear on the right and barrelled his way into the penalty box. Just as things were starting to get interesting, though, he appeared to trip himself up, and act which Mr Clark interpreted as simulation and drew from him the first yellow card of the afternoon.

Andrew Driver and Ian Murray

Hibs fought back, mainly through the right-wing trickery of Filipe Morais, who was giving Jose Goncalves a torrid time wide on the Hearts left. The Portuguese defender's tendency to get dragged inside towards his centre half left a lot of space for his countryman, and Hibs were unfortunate not to capitalise on one of two decent low balls he struck across the face of Banks's goal.

Merouane Zemmama then side-footed a Dean Sheils corner against the outside of Banks's left-hand post, although the keeper may have had the effort covered, before Benji curled a free kick from the right hand corner of the penalty box straight into the defensive wall.

Paatelainen made the game's first personnel change at half time when he replaced the ineffective Benji with the newly recovered Steven Fletcher, and certainly the visitors looked more dynamic in their forward movement as the second half got under way. Indeed, Hearts barely got a kick in the first five minutes, although the only real danger came when Sheils found space inside the area to tease a ball across the six-yard box. Fortunately, it sailed through unmolested a yard ahead of the lurking Fletcher.

Andrius Velicka celebrates after scoring

Hibs continued to look the livelier team, but the home side's defending was stout, at times fairly desperate. If the plan was to soak up this pressure and hit on the break, then that wasn't really working either, as whenever Hearts did come into possession the player on the ball would look up to find very few options ahead of him.

That particular problem was compounded by the performance of Michael Stewart who had struggled to keep his footing in the first half and was now finding it extremely difficult to keep up with the pace of the play in the second. Perhaps he had simply run himself out, but his general demeanour when he was eventually substituted after 64 minutes suggested he might in fact have been feeling the effects of some illness.

Lee Wallace was the man to come on, quickly followed by Saulius Mikoliunas who replaced the tiring Cesnauskis. Hibs, meanwhile, introduced new signing John Rankin - already a scorer at Tynecastle this season - for Zemmama. None of the substitutions did much to alter the pattern of play - Hibs pressed forward, Hearts absorbed, more or less comfortably, all that was thrown at them, grateful to Banks for a couple of secure clutches.

Andrius Velicka scores

It may not have been pretty but it was certainly riveting enough, never more so than when Chris Hogg stole beyond everyone to meet Rankin's deep, curled free kick at the back post. Four yards out it seemed all he had to do was nod the ball over the line, however, he did little more than brush the ball with his hair, allowing Banks to make the stop low at his post.

Christian Nade replaced the hobbling Palazuelos, while Hibs' final sub saw Damon Gray appear for the exhausted Filipe Morais, as the visitors went route one. Berra, Karipidis and Neilson were up to that challenge, though, repelling everything that came their way. Indeed, it was Hearts who came closer to doubling their advantage in the final five minutes, as first Mikoliunas's header squirted out of Ma-Kalambay's hands on the line, before Gavin McCann drove Velicka's cutback narrowly wide of this own post.

Hearts: Banks; Neilson, Karipidis, Berra, Goncalves; Cesnauskis (Mikoliunas 69), Stewart (64), Jonsson, Palazuelos (Nade 80), Driver; Velicka. Booked: Velicka, Driver, Nade. Subs not used: Bjornsson, Thomson, Beniusis, Ksanavicius.

Hibernian: Ma-Kalambay; McCann, Jones, Hogg, Murray; Zemmama (Rankin 67), Kerr, Beuzelin, Morais (Gray 80); Benjelloun (Fletcher 46), Sheils. Booked: Jones, Beuzelin. Subs not used: McNeil, Chisolm, McCormack, Hanlon.

Referee: Kenny Clark

Top man: Ruben Palazuelos

Hearts World