Hibernian 0 Hearts 0

The simplest law of the game – that a goal is scored when the whole of the ball crosses the whole of the goal line – went unobserved at Easter Road on Sunday in yet another incident which adds weight to the calls for technology to resolve such contentious issues.

The controversy occurred in the 77th minute, when Hearts’ Mehdi Taouil conceded a foul – and was booked for his cynical challenge on Tom Taiwo – and the free-kick was struck from 30 yards by Leigh Griffiths.

Griffiths, a master of such set-piece plays, imparted his delivery with such venom that the ball crashed off the bottom of the crossbar, bounced fully three feet behind the goal line and then, with incredible back spin, rebounded on to the pitch.

The referee, Euan Norris, looked immediately to his far side assistant, Raymond White, but got no help from that quarter.

To be fair, the free-kick was taken so far out that the assistant was scarcely closer than the edge of the penalty area when the ball crossed the line and it would have been reprehensible for him to have responded with a guess.

“I've seen it a couple of times - it's that far over the line its embarrassing,” said Pat Fenlon, the Hibs manager.

“It was close to actually touching the net and the longer the day goes on the harder it’s going to be to take. I’m frustrated for the players because they put so much into a game that was so close that it was always going to take something special to win it – and that was something special from Leigh.

"Rather than me, it should be the person who's making the decision who's out here answering questions about it. As a manager I'm accountable, referees should be accountable too."

The previous derby – a goalless draw at Tynecastle on Jan 3 – was so dire it seemed safe to predict that the next instalment would not be its equal for lack of incident. The Griffiths free-kick guaranteed that such would be the case, but it soon became clear in this case that svelte play would be close to impossible, although that was not wholly the fault of the players, who had to operate on a rutted surface and in the teeth of a bitter and unremitting blast from the Firth of Forth, which periodically swept snow on to the shivering denizens.

Hearts had one enforced change with Darren Barr suspended and replaced in midfield by Callum Tapping. Gary Locke, the interim Tynecastle manager, chose to pair John Sutton and Michael Ngoo, as he had done in the midweek 2-0 home victory over St Johnstone, in hope of improving a lamentable record which had seen Hearts win only a single away game in the league – at Tannadice on Sept 22.

Easter Road – hardly surprisingly, given the conditions and the fact that the proceedings were being televised live – was far from full. However, the habitual edge to the atmosphere was discernible before the start as a banner brandished amongst the Hibs support taunted their rivals with a reference to the financial troubles besetting Vladimir Romanov – “Mad Vlad’s Cabs”, plus a number to call said vehicles – and, to add to the colour, Scott Brown ambled in after quarter of an hour, clad in open fleece and T-shirt.

Perhaps the Celtic captain deliberately chose to miss Hearts’ bright opening against his former club, a passage in which Ngoo was the dominant personality, switching sides to shred Hibs on each flank. The forward, on loan from Liverpool, made his first thrust on the Hearts right, where he skipped past Ryan McGivern and drove a dangerous cutback across the six-yard box where Sutton could not connect.

Ngoo next left Alan Maybury for dead on the left and struck another tempting ball which was swallowed up by Jamie MacDonald before a Hearts boot could intervene. Hibs had stationed Jorge Claros in front of their back four, but the insurance was largely made redundant by Hearts’ wide play.

The visitors, though, continued to pass up opportunities, one Sutton header hitting Ngoo with Ben Williams beaten, a Ngoo cross finding Sutton in front of goal only for the ball to come the striker’s chest and a corner kick which was met by Danny Wilson with a flying header to fall just the wrong side of the back post.

With Taiwo and Scott Robertson showing little appetite to carry the contest to the Hearts box, it took Hibs until midway through the half to get their first shot on target, an effort by Matt Done which was smothered.

A state of deadlock was in force by the time the interval arrived, Hearts’ momentum having been disrupted by the loss of Fraser Mullen with an injury that left him on crutches and saw him replaced by Brad McKay, who arrived amidst a blizzard to become the 10th Hearts player to make a debut this season.

There was little change to the pattern after the break and stalemate continued until Griffiths produced his electrifying free- kick.

Despite their disappointment at being thwarted of all three points, Hibs at least have the Edinburgh bragging rights, after three league draws and a victory over Hearts in the Scottish Cup, in contrast to last season’s five defeats at the hands of their rivals.

“There wasn’t much fluent play but the conditions weren’t conducive to getting the ball down and stroking it about. I haven’t had a chance to look at Leigh Griffiths’ free-kick but I did think at the time that it was a great strike and a few people have told me that it was over,” said Locke.

“All we can do now is look forward to the Scottish League Cup final next Sunday and prepare for that in the right fashion.”

And, he might have added, hope that the showpiece occasion is not similarly devalued by inability to call the most decisive moment of the proceedings.

Match details

Hibernian (4-5-1): Williams; Maybury, McPake, McGivern, Stevenson; Done (Harris 62), Robertson, Claros, Taiwo (Thomson 86), Wotherspoon (Doyle 74); Griffiths. Subs Murdoch (g), Deegan, Handling, Forster. Booked Maybury.

Heart of Midlothian (4-4-2): MacDonald; Mullen (McKay 37), Webster, Wilson, McHattie; Stevenson (Holt 82), Tapping, Taouil, Novikovas (Walker 56); Ngoo, Sutton. Subs Ridgers (g), Smith, Prychynenko, McKay, Carrick. Booked McHattie, McKay, Taouil.

Referee E Norris.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk