YESTERDAY’S Edinburgh derby in the fourth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup ended on a sour note when Hibs manager Neil Lennon took exception to his opposite number Craig Levein’s assertion that he hoped his side’s 1-0 victory was the first step to restoring “the natural order of things” between these two great capital rivals.
The line was delivered by a jubilant Levein with a gleam in his eye after he had watched an 87th minute goal from Don Cowie end Hibs’ nine-match unbeaten run in this fixture. This was a huge win for the Hearts boss, who largely had his way in this fixture in his previous stints as both player and manager, and one which his team merited for the efficiency of their second half performance.
“It’s a massive win for us,” the Hearts manager said. “The longer the run goes on, the more difficult it becomes and the more steely Hibs become when they’re protecting something. We needed to break it and break it as quickly as possible and that today was relief.
“I don’t like this idea that Hibs were gaining any sort of momentum and I want to try to restore the natural order of things,” added Levein, who downplayed a second half incident where he grappled with Hibs' Martin Boyle over a loose ball. “We’ve stopped the run that Hibs had, we’ve gone through to the next round and we feel good about it. I think we deserved to win and that’s important as well.”
While these two men largely get on well, Lennon felt such a comment showed a lack of respect to his team. “What does that mean, ‘restoring the natural order?’” said Lennon. “I don’t understand that. What is the natural order? Is it Hearts beating Hibs every time?
“It’s just a crock of crap. It’s pretty poor. It’s a pretty poor statement to make and I think it’s disrespectful to my club, my players and me. And we have got two more games to come so we will see if the natural order is restored then. I don’t know what he means by it but they have not won in nine, this is my first defeat in five, we also should have won the league game here and they got lucky. So there’s a lack of humility in that statement and I don’t think I have ever made a statement like that.”
Levein, who wasn’t exactly turning cartwheels about being handed a home draw against Albion Rovers or St Johnstone in yesterday’s fifth round draw, praised the impact of his two debutants Steven Naismith and Demetri Mitchell recruited on-loan from Norwich City and Manchester United respectively, with 16-year-old Harry Cochrane again producing a midfield performance which belied his tender years.
“Steven and Demi were great, and I say it every week but I thought Harry Cochrane was out of this world,” said Levein. “He was fantastic in this match, considering the nature of it, but the two debutants for Hearts were fantastic too. I would think - I might be wrong - that St Johnstone will win that tie and our record against St Johnstone isn’t great. So if you ask me if I’d have picked a game, I wouldn’t have picked that one. But again, we’re at home and that makes me feel good.”
While goalscorer Don Cowie hailed the win as ‘psychologically probably even bigger than beating Celtic 4-0’, Lennon left Anthony Stokes – likely to have played his last game for the club due to a breach of the club’s code of conduct - out of his squad as he wasn’t “in the right frame of mind” and insisted that “his absence” didn’t “make a difference”. “It’s a club issue and it will be resolved one way or other in the next week or so,” said Lennon.
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