Hibs Jump to Third After Derby Victory Over Hearts

Jack Iredale’s first Hibernian goal was the derby day decider as Hibernian jumped to third in the table with a 2-1 victory over Hearts.

The start was frantic, with Martin Boyle slotting past Craig Gordon to give Hibs the early advantage.

Hearts responded almost immediately as Jorge Grant picked up the scraps from a defensive mishap and lashed it past Jordan Smith to bring his side level.

Iredale was the match-winner, scoring a peach of a volley from just outside the box to give Hibs the derby bragging rights for the second time this season.

Hibernian came into the game looking to extend their 14-game unbeaten run, a run that includes the massive scalp of the victory reigning champions Celtic at Easter Road last weekend.

Neil Critchley’s Heart of Midlothian sit four points behind their Edinburgh-rivals in seventh-place, looking to make amends for their boxing day derby defeat at Tynecastle.

David Gray named two changes to the side that won at Tannadice mid-week, with goalscorer against Dundee United Kieran Bowie coming into the team alongside Chris Cadden.

Jorge Grant and Blair Spittal were the changes made to the Hearts side that defeated St Mirren on Wednesday evening, with Gerald Taylor, Jamie McCart, Michael Steinwender and Elton Kabangu all getting their first taste of the Edinburgh Derby.

One of the box-office fixtures on the Scottish football calendar got off to a start that was worthy of that tagline as derby day specialist Martin Boyle showed incredible pace to break beyond Costa-Rican full-back Taylor and slotted past Craig Gordon from close-range.

With the big question from the travelling support now being how would their team respond, they got that just response almost immediately as the Hibs centre-backs Rocky Bushiri and Jack Iredale got things all wrong, allowing Jorge Grant to blast it past Smith from range to bring the Jambos level.

The defensive frailties from the home side persisted past the half-hour mark, with Bushiri and Iredale getting in all sorts of bother once again and almost allowing Lawrence Shankland to head home, the captain only finding the side-netting.

Kabangu almost opened his derby day scoring account on his derby debut as he found Smith’s bottom-left corner, only to see the offside flag deny him the glory.

The disallowed goal seemed to spark Hibs back into gear as Nathan Moriah-Welsh did well to find Nicky Cadden who flashed his shot agonisingly wide of Gordon’s left-post.

Warren O’Hora expertly timed a sliding tackle to prevent a shooting chance for Kabango, but it came at a cost as he had to be withdrawn following the collision, replaced by Lewis Miller.

The last action of the first-half was a yellow card shown to Shankland for booting the ball away in frustration, which was well received by the home fans.

Kieran Bowie, starting his first Edinburgh Derby, looked to make his mark at the beginning of the second period as he glanced his header from a pin-point Nicky Cadden cross wide of the mark.

James Penrice went close for Hearts next, trying a speculative volley from range that missed Smith’s goal.

Easter Road felt hard done by after Nicky Cadden went over in the box and his penalty claims were waved away by John Beaton, with those feelings of frustrations only being furthered by the fact that Hearts almost went straight up the field and scored through Kabangu following the incident.

Hibs continued to chip away as Moriah-Welsh, encouraged by the roar of “SHOOT” from the home fans, fired narrowly wide from range, and Chris Cadden volleyed into the arms of Gordon just a few moments later.

Gordon fluffed a Cadden corner and Moriah-Welsh expertly chipped it to Boyle who volleyed well wide of the mark with a chance that he really should have done better with.

With Hearts toiling and the number of missed chances starting to rack up, it was key for Hibs to take advantage of their second-half dominance, but no one would have foresaw it coming courtesy of an Iredale screamer. John Beaton hurried out of the way as the centre-back volleyed it from range into Gordon’s left-corner to finally restore Hibs’ lead.

Bushiri almost added the third goal that would have killed the game with a bullet header if not for Michael Steinwender getting in the way at the last moment.

A third Hibs goal wasn’t needed as the Iredale goal was the match-winner, and ‘Sunshine on Leith’ rang around Easter Road for the second home game in a row, a real symbol of the feel-good atmosphere surrounding the club on this current run.

Match Analysis

The game got off to a flying start in the opening ten minutes, but started to slow down as Hearts began to get a foothold on the game thanks to the Rocky – O’Hora show at the back for the Hibees.

A disallowed Elton Kabangu goal sparked the game back into life, and it looked like a game that definitely had more goals to come heading into the second-half.

Hibs ramped up the attacking intensity in the second-half, with some teasing deliveries from Nicky Cadden giving the Hearts defence something to think about.

The Iredale winner had a real sense of inevitability about it, with the second-half well and truly one-way traffic compared to the competitive first, and the good times continue to roll on for David Gray at Easter Road, extending the unbeaten run to 15 games.

What did the managers have to say?

David Gray, Hibernian Head Coach: “I’m delighted to get the 3 points to cap off what has been a brilliant week.”

“The players have put some amount of effort into it and I thought we deserved it based on the second-half performance.”

Neil Critchley, Heart of Midlothian Head Coach: “First-half we were slightly the better team for an away team. We had good control in the game and played the game how we wanted to play it after giving away a really poor first goal.”

“In the second-half I think we just lost belief in what we were doing a little bit which is not like us. If you don’t get your defensive organisation right and if you don’t keep the ball then that allows the opposition to build momentum in the game, and that’s what happened.”

“It’s taken a great strike to win the game, but I was really disappointed with the way we played in the second-half.”