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Kevin Kyle ensures derby success for Hearts against HibernianEwan Murray at Tynecastle Sooner or later, Hearts' quest to become the first non-Old Firm team to claim the SPL championship since 1985 might have to be taken seriously. It remains a long shot that the ultimate glory will arrive in May, but Edinburgh's maroon half are enjoying the ride. Jim Jefferies's team have collected 25 points from a possible 27, edging them to within three points of the summit. Hearts' supporters will care little about grand aspirations right now. They will merely bask in winning a fourth straight match against their city rivals. Hibernian, who have a legitimate fear of relegation amid a dismal run of form, defended manfully and looked as if they could earn a point before Kevin Kyle's late header sent Tynecastle into raptures. Hearts were fully deserving of their win, but had to huff and puff to get it. "Someone said to me that it wasn't the greatest game," said Jefferies. "I couldn't give a toss if it was the worst game in the world because this is a sweet, sweet feeling. If you go on a run like we are on, you get belief and confidence. Those things are everything in football. You get a determination to keep going. It is a fantastic spell that we are having but we have earned it." These derbies are always fiery affairs. This one opened in typically tempestuous fashion. Ian Murray, the Hibs captain, was lucky to escape with a yellow card after landing a forearm smash on the head of Ian Black during an aerial challenge after eight minutes. "If you don't go into these challenges to protect yourself, you are going to get hurt and I wasn't going to get hurt," said a nonplussed Murray. "I think he [Black] was alright." Black was, however, knocked out at the time. The remainder of the first half was messy, Hearts coming close to scoring as a Rudi Skacel cross evaded Kyle and Calum Elliot. The hosts raised the tempo after the interval, Marius Zaliukas's header was cleared from the Hibs goalline by Steven Thicot before Mark Brown tipped a Skacel free-kick on to a post. The danger for Hearts was being caught on the counter-attack. Hibs demonstrated that point, Derek Riordan finding Colin Nish with a crossfield ball that the striker wastefully blasted wide. It proved the warning Jefferies needed, replacing the ineffectual David Templeton with Arvydas Novikovas in a bid to slice open Hibs' defence. Novikovas supplied another substitute, Gary Glen, but the young striker shot wide from close range. The Lithuanian winger's next intervention was definitive, Novikovas collecting a Skacel pass, skipping past three defenders and threading in a fine cross that Kyle headed in at the back post. "What there was within that goal was terrific quality," was the magnanimous assessment of the Hibs manager, Colin Calderwood. "And by that I mean with the assist and the header." Yet Calderwood could have been afforded late salvation from the penalty spot. Isma�l Bouzid appeared to handle a Riordan shot, but Hibs' appeals fell on deaf ears. An equaliser would have been harsh on Hearts – and on those who yearn for that long-lost novelty of a three-horse title race. |
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