Although the 20-point gap between the teams meant Hearts were clear favourites to win this match at Tynecastle, Derby matches often don`t go to plan – and for most of the first half, the visitors managed to stifle the home side` quick passing and movement (which some media commentators amazingly still claim is the trademark and copyright of Hibernian !!)
Rudi Skacel retuned to his normal left midfield berth, with Calum Elliot still partnering Kevin Kyle in attack. Hibs were without Sol Bamba, who appears to be moving to Leicester City in the next few days . Rumours of Liam Miller being about to join Hearts were given no credence when he appeared in his usual midfield role for the visitors.
Within 20 minutes, Hibs had picked up 3 bookings (Murray, Trakys and Miller) – suggesting that their plan involved trying to soften up the likes of Skacel and Black. The latter needed several minutes of treatment after being flattened by Ian Murray, whose elbow looked to be dangerously close to Black`s face in a 50-50 jump.
Despite a lot of scrappy play, Hearts still managed to come close in the first 45 minutes on several occasions when clever passes were played into the danger area – and Rudi tried a couple of trademark shots from 20 yards too. At the other end, Dickoh should have done better with Hibs best chance as the first half came to an end.
Hearts started the second half by exerting even more pressure than before, as they shot towards the Gorgie Road end. A loose ball in the Hibs box was pounced on by Calum Elliot, but keeper Brown made a brilliant one-handed save to prevent the opening goal. Then a curling Skacel free-kick from the right was heading for the top corner, until Brown leapt to tip the ball on to the crossbar.
Substitute Colin Nish was then a couple of feet wide with a powerful shot when he ran on to a clever cross-field pass from Riordan after Hibs had broken up a Hearts attack.
With 10 minutes remaining, JJ replaced Templeton and Elliott with Glen and Novikovas. The Lithuanian winger immediately combined well with Skacel to deliver a lovely low cross to the far post where Gary Glen should have scored – but he side-footed his shot inches wide. Minutes later, Hearts calmly played the ball out of defence to Skacel who fed Novikovas on the left. The youngster evaded 2 defenders to send another perfect far-post cross on to the head of Kevin Kyle – and the celebrations began for the home fans as soon as his header hit the back of the net !!!
Hibs had a late claim for a penalty when Bouzid`s arm blocked a Riordan cross – but the referee had ignored a similar accidental hand-ball in Hibs box earlier, and waved “play on” on this occasion too.
Once again, every Hearts man put in a good performance – but I thought Jonsson, Palazuelos, Black, Skacel and Kyle were simply outstanding. On a day when David Templeton was policed very effectively by the opposition, it`s good to know that Hearts have other youngsters such as Novikovas capable of a piece of brilliance too.
That`s 4 Derby wins out of 4 for Jim Jefferies as he approaches the 12 month anniversary since he came “back home.” Let’s hope that 100% record continues until he retires !!
For Hibs, Thicot did very well against Templeton – while Mark Brown made 2 superb saves (from Elliot and Skacel) plus several other good ones. Liam Miller worked hard in midfield, and showed he is one of their better players – but is he good enough to play for Hearts ? Hmmm?. not sure. We`ll have to wait and see if the rumours are true.
Share this article
Related Articles
excellent, I thought Kyle was fantastic – again – and black deserves loads of credit for a great performance, despite being majorly in the wars – and i dont think he got booked! it may really be a new year… Mark brown kept them in it, i dont remember Jamie making a save. All round very encouraging, watching the game on tv there was a spot with Kevin Kyle where there was some banter with his teammates, he reallys seems like the kind of guy who will be a hearts captain in years to come
incidentally, what are we hoping for in the OF game? Seeing as they can’t both loose… I’m hoping for a celtic win which assuming other games in hand are won would have us 6 and 8 points behind. If rangers win, Celtic are properly in our sights though – if there was a second Champions league spot I’d be cheering for that, but on balance I’d rather it was tighter between 3 of us…..
Good point about Kyle being captain material, PTJ. We basically hammered them 1-0 yesterday – and it was great to hear JJ and KK’s comments after the game. As for the OF game…. a draw would suit me. I’d rather we caught up points on them both, simply to test our team’s resolve in the coming weeks to see if they can hold their nerve (and form) if we are only a few points off the top. Great times to be a Jambo !!
KK is effectively the captain on the park without being that officially though isn’t he? Perhaps not the most gifted player in the world but totally committed to the cause….closest we’ve had to Sandy Clark since he left maybe?
Indeed Mr H. Good to have your input again – it’s been far too long, sir !! On a side topic – I watched the free-kick incident which led to Rudi’s curling free-kick again. What utter crass nonsense from Derek Rae and Scott Booth, claiming that Templeton “went to ground too easily”. Perhaps there is now a rule which says that fast ball players should slow their dribbling down a bit so as not to embarrass carthorse defenders who aren’t used to that sort of thing ? You can just sense a “Miko-style” bandwagon starting to be assembled in the media (aimed at Templeton), can’t you.
to be fair, not getting any miko-like signals here – afterall the pressure on him was only really bad after he did that dive against scotland… Dont worry about it, how many times do you hear ‘Ronaldo goes down too easy’ – he just dances by people and so the tackles are often late. He gets from the press it for the incident with rooney, but theres no reason for this kind of thing to affect Temps.