Hibs 0-2 Hearts

Jan 12 2009 By Keith Jackson at Easter Road

THIS was more than just another derby defeat. This time Hibs' pain felt even more excruciating than usual.

Somehow Mixu Paatelainen and his players managed to capitulate and humiliate in equal measure as they let the Scottish Cup escape them once again but even though this desperate run dates back to 1902, seldom can elimination have hurt quite so badly.

Hibs surrendered their place in the competition to their greatest rivals meekly and without any kind of spirit or fight. Worse still, they began to unravel before the very eyes of a support who were left to cringe at the indiscipline and indifference of their players as goals from Christian Nade and teenage prodigy Gary Glen wrapped up a glory day for the team across the city.

Amatch that had started off as evenly as it had frantically began to slip away from the home side after half an hour when talisman Steven Fletcher was red carded for a dangerously late tackle on Hearts captain Christophe Berra.

And the moment Yves Ma-Kalambay's brain went into meltdown - well it was derby day after all and he was due - leading to an act of outrageous benevolence from the keeper who just keeps on giving, Hibs were as good as gone.

Ma-Kalambay's shame was complete when he was subbed at half-time but while he and Fletcher took cover in the home dressing room their team-mates did their hiding out on the park.

Their second-half performance lacked just about everything. No spirit, no fight, no discipline and hardly a single shot at goal.

They could not even muster any evidence of urgency even though their need could not have been greater or the suffering of their supporters any more acute.

And to think Hearts had arrived here three down before a ball had been kicked having lost influential trio Laryea Kingston, Bruno Aguiar and Robbie Neilson to injury.

In fact, this looked like a rather withering triple whammy for Csaba Laszlo who has relied heavily on the craft and midfield scheming of Aguiar and Kingston.

The coach's response was to load up his attack with muscle, playing David Obua up top alongside Nade in a powerful pairing.

And it worked, even though Hibs skipper Rob Jones was fit enough and willing enough to act as a human buffer against Laszlo's battering-ram attack.

It quickly became clear, as this derby raged around in no particular direction, that this was a day for big men and bold intentions.

Any player not fully focused or committed to the cause might be devoured like a chunk of raw meat by a fixture which holds its own bloodlust.

There would be two victims. One unexpected. One not. But both of them were wearing Hibs shirts.

Quite unexpectedly it was Fletcher's turn to be gobbled up and spat out first. He lasted only half an hour before being red-carded for a crude lunge at Berra and his only other notable contribution was to make an awful mess of missing his side's best chance.

He was clean through in 16 minutes when he was superbly picked out by Sol Bamba's perfect pass but the Scotland striker took a touch when he ought to have been unloading and before he could get his shot away he was closed down and snuffed out by Hearts keeper Janos Balogh.

Hibs fans' recoiled in horror. They could hardly believe Fletcher of all people should lose his composure at such a critical moment. But worse was to follow.

Fletcher slammed the tin lid down on his disastrous derby day in 30 minutes when he hurled himself into a reckless and late tackle on Berra, clattering into his right ankle with ref Craig Thomson just yards away.

Thomson whipped out his red card and with that Fletcher's derby was over. Pretty soon Hibs' would be too.

Fletcher's chance had been a rarity. For most of the rest of the first half the ball was battered and bashed around almost brutally from one end to the other without either side managing to get it under control for long enough to dictate play or achieve dominance.

As is often the case on derby day, up and down the land, there was nothing classy or precise about what was going on. But then there didn't need to be.

It was all so frantic and meaty that it gripped the attention anyway. Well, it did to most of us. There is always an exception.

And not for the first time the exception was Ma-Kalamity.

What on earth was he thinking as he abdicated his goal-line to set off after Andy Driver and chase the winger along his byeline towards the edge of his 18-yard box?

It was ludicrous. It was lamentable. And, as Driver twisted to slip the ball across an open goal and Nade nudged it over the line, with Ma-Kalambay stuck in no man's land, it was almost laughable. Almost.

But then Hibs goalkeeping blunders on derby day are the oldest joke in the book and Mixu Paatelainen didn't see the funny side.

He gave Ma-Kalambay the hook at halftime, replacing him with new boy Grzegorz Szamotulski, who came on for a surprise debut in rather desperate circumstances.

It was up to Paatelainen's 10 men to somehow drag their way back into the cup but this did not look likely. With Jonatan Johansson and Derek Riordan leading the line the Hibs attack was limp and lacklustre.

In fact now that Johansson has lost so much of his pace it is difficult to see what he has left to offer. Whatever it is, it certainly wasn't enough to trouble a Hearts defence which Berra marshalled quite superbly. The best they could muster was a speculative drive, from their best player Bamba, which flashed wide from fully 30 yards.

It was no surprise then that both Riordan and Johansson were the next to go when, in 65 minutes, Paatelainen sent on Colin Nish and Alan O'Brien in their place.

Riordan reacted by flashing an "up yours" gesture towards the Hearts fans cheering him off. But this was little more than a display of childish petulance from a player who up until then had shown no trace of such defiance or spirit. He was rightly booked before he trudged off and headed straight up the tunnel which, in itself, was an act of selfishness and indiscipline.

By now though these attributes were spreading through Paatelainen and his players like a sickness. He didn't help matters by bustling on to the touchline repeatedly, angrily demanding action from the officials in a blatant attempt to get the numbers evened up.

Berra and Marius Zaliukas were booked on either side of the break but while Hibs were losing self-control Hearts' players began to cruise with some comfort.

And the victory was secured in injury time when sub Glen burst through on to a Christos Karipidis pass to round Szamotulski and slip the ball into an empty net with a piece of expert striking that suggests a bright future.

For Hibs though the future seems uncertain. And the past, all 107 years of it, has seldom felt quite so humiliating.

MAN OF THE MATCH Christian Nade (Hearts)

Taken from the Daily Record