FOX IN THE BOX
Murray did a Vardy for his derby decider
THE goal belonged to Simon Murray. But Jamie Vardy should be credited with the assist.
Putting such an unlikely strike pairing together for Hibs? That was the brainwave of a backroom boffin largely unknown to the thousands who celebrated Tuesday night’s derby win at Easter Road.
Murray, whose ripping shot into the roof of the net put Hearts in a hole from which they could not escape, revealed how Hibs’ head of performance analysis, Calvin Charlton, had put him on track for his first goal since August. With a little help from a famous title-winning frontman from the Premier League.
‘I was watching a few videos through the week, all the strikers, and seeing how you get your head down and lash at it, hitting it as hard as you can and get it on target — so my first thought was to get it on target,’ Murray said of his match-winning moment.
‘I watched a few. I got a few clips of Jamie Vardy, which were good. He puts his head down and hits it.
‘The video analysis guy said that to me. He said: “Just get your head down and hit it”. I did that early on in the game — and maybe that helped because the keepers aren’t fully switched on yet.
‘We haven’t really watched those videos before but, when you watch Premier League players, it is good to study what they do and, luckily, I watched it this week. I will keep watching Vardy, definitely.’
Murray laughed aside a suggestion that he upgrade to highlights packages of Cristiano Ronaldo, pointing out that he’s more likely to be watching footage of his own recent feat rather than those of the man just crowned FIFA’s Footballer of the Year.
‘To score a winner in the derby, it was the most memorable goal of my career so far,’ he said. ‘I’ll be watching it back a fair few times!’
Some players are just made for derby days and nights, and Murray already has the look of being right at home. Tuesday was his first start in over a month — and only because of an injury to Anthony Stokes — but it resulted in a fine all-round performance.
He’d been well prepped for his first fully immersive experience of the Edinburgh rivalry, with dad Gary — a Hibs striker in the 1980s — having forewarned him of what to expect.
‘It was phenomenal,’ he said of a night when Easter Road bounced and swayed to victory songs from the home support.
‘You see what the crowd are like. It was a great experience and one I will always remember.
‘My dad had told me a few things about it and I have watched it on TV but I had never actually been to an Edinburgh derby. So it was good.
‘My dad just said: “Go and work hard — and grab yourself a goal”. It’s not too bad, scoring the winner, is it? I couldn’t have hoped for a better derby.
‘I don’t feel like I played unbelievably well. I just got the goal. It was an incredibly tense match to be involved in.
‘It was my first experience of the crowd and everything else. It was great and it’s something I will always remember.’
The noise levels generated by his early goal were off the scale, yet Murray confessed: ‘I can’t actually remember hearing anything.
‘I just went into a daze. It was like I was thinking: “What’s just happened?”. And I just started running. I think I did a knee slide of some sort...’
Murray was told 90 minutes before kick-off that he’d be back in the starting line-up, a welcome boost for a striker whose electrifying start to this first season in the top flight — ten goals in his opening seven matches — had been followed by an inevitable slump.
Last weekend at Hampden, the former Dundee United forward remained on the bench as young Oli Shaw was thrown on up front to make an immediate impact, scoring his first senior goal in the Betfred League Cup semi-final loss to Celtic.
For someone who had worked his way up from the Juniors, simply accepting that he’d fallen out of favour was never an option.
‘Obviously, I started the season well with a good few goals but you know you are always going to go through that wee dip in form,’ he said.
‘But I have been working hard and hoping to get back in the team. I couldn’t have hoped for a better time for that to happen.’
Murray’s revival echoes that of his own team, with Hibs bagging their first win in over a month to climb back into the top six.
Away to Betfred Cup finalists Motherwell on Saturday, they face another tough test in a daunting sequence of fixtures that has gone Celtic, Aberdeen, Celtic and now Hearts.
‘I am just glad that we got the result in the derby and, hopefully, we can now kick on,’ he said.
HIBS’ main club sponsor Marathonbet will donate £500 to the Hibernian Community Foundation every time Simon Murray marks a goal with his ‘Simon Says’ celebration, as he did with his winner against Hearts.