It was a pitched battle in more ways than one at Tynecastle and Neil Lennon, the Hibernian manager, heaped praise on his players for emerging with a replay from their Capital encounter with Hearts in the fifth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup.
On an extremely rutted and bobbly playing surface, which made for a largely scrappy spectacle, Lennon applauded the sturdy resolve of his players as the current cup holders lived to fight another day.
“We were very good, really strong,” said the Northern Irishman who has experienced the thunderous tumult of the Glasgow derby during his time at Celtic but was tasting the all-Edinburgh affair for the first time. “It was impossible to play any kind of cohesive football on the pitch so we had to play the pitch the right way and we did. We were strong defensively. We could have taken care of the ball a little bit better in the final third but I thought we were excellent.”
Hearts had gone into yesterday’s encounter on the back of two highly impressive wins in the Ladbrokes Premiership over Rangers and Motherwell but Hibernian, the leaders of the Scottish Championship, were more than a match for their city rivals. Understandably, Lennon was talking up his side's chances ahead of the replay later this month.
“I fancy my chances all the time and that was in my Celtic days, as a player and manager, and now here,” added Lennon. “For us to come here and play like that against a Hearts side who were rampant in their previous two games says a lot about our team. There is nothing between the teams. We might have a slight advantage because we are at home but you would have to ask the bookies if we are the favourites for the replay. Hearts are a team that are fourth in the Premiership and we are in the Championship and I was very impressed with what I saw from my boys.”
The bustling industry of Grant Holt was a valuable weapon in the Hibernian armoury. While the 35-year-old was relishing the prospect of another crack at Hearts, the Cumbrian centre-forward knows Hibernian can’t afford to take their eyes of the main prize of promotion back to the top flight.
“I think you can see today we can match anyone when we are at it,” he said. “The club needs this fixture twice at home and twice away next year. We need to play Celtic, we need to play Rangers and only we can do that. Yes, it’s fantastic that we won the Scottish Cup and we are still the holders of it. But the club needs to be in the Premiership week in, week out.”
Ian Cathro was also involved in his first Edinburgh derby and the new Hearts manager conceded that it had been a frustrating day.
He said: “ I think what we saw was a game which was a typical derby. Lots of breaks, lots of stoppages, lots of fouls. The game fails to come to life really. That’s the frustrating thing from our side. We could have played better. But was it balanced? Maybe. It’s difficult with the atmosphere and the whole sense of what the derby is. We needed to try to play past that a little bit better.”
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