GOAL-LINE BLUNDER ROBS HIBS OF GLORY
Derby debacle as Shaw finds the net... but it doesn’t count
IT wouldn’t be an Edinburgh derby without a slice of controversy. This one could be measured in the thickness of a regulation goal line. Plus a couple of inches. At least.
Oli Shaw should have ended last night at Tynecastle being carried shoulder-high by his team-mates. The hero who had guided his time to their first victory over Hearts in Gorgie since 2013.
He took his goal really well. With just six minutes on the clock, he beat Jon McLaughlin with a cracking finish. And, had the SPFL invested in goal-line technology, the scoreline would have included his effort.
Honestly? If the team of officials working this game had merely kept their eyes open and focused, they would have awarded a goal both clever in its creation and perfect in its execution.
Of course, there’s no telling how the game might have progressed had the men in black not been found wanting. The loss of a goal might have spurred a defensive Hearts side into more offensive action. This could have been a nine-goal thriller.
But that one early moment came to define the contest. Leaving Hibs, in particular, to ponder what might have been.
The fact the visitors maintained their unbeaten run in the derby, stretching the sequence to nine matches, wasn’t much consolation for Neil Lennon or his men.
As for Craig Levein and his players, deep down they will know they got away with one. Had they shown a little more accuracy in the final third, though, they might even have sneaked an outrageous win.
Few will remember this one for anything apart from the non-goal, a few meaty challenges and a sense of occasion not quite matched by the football on show.
They all profess to love everything about this fixture, the men — and boys, occasionally — thrown into the fray. The speed of events on the field, the sheer volume generated by two tribes verbally squaring off, even the individual goblets of vitriol spat out towards the chosen ‘favourites’ … all of it is publicly embraced as part of the fun.
But maybe that’s just the vibe among guys willing to front up on behalf of their clubs in derby week.
Come on, there have to be some players who actively dread this game. We have all seen a few who looked as if they would rather be navigating a minefield in clown shoes than trying to maintain their balance on this stage.
Would there be one, or more, obviously reluctant combatant at this remodelled temple of hostility on a night made for frayed tempers and murky tricks?
Both starting XIs appeared built more for durability than devilmay-care daring; neither Levein nor Lennon seemed prepared to challenge accepted tenets about enduring in order to triumph on such occasions.
The difference between the home team and the visitors, however, was that Hibs had players who could both fight for the ball and then make use of it.
The tone was set early enough, Marvin Bartley and Jamie Walker colliding in a thunderous tangle that left the Hibs player standing over his Hearts counterpart.
Where some might have seen this as a cue to start shaking each other by the throat, this pair shook hands and got on with play. Different rules apply in this game — and the players who have been here before know it.
Unfortunately for Hibs, referee Steven McLean — and more specifically his assistant Sean Carr — seemed to think that one specific Law of the Game could be temporarily suspended for the night. The one about awarding a goal when the ball has crossed the line?
Just six minutes were on the clock when John McGinn hit a driven pass down the inside right channel for Martin Boyle, who fired in a low cross for Shaw to score with a first-time shot in off the underside of the bar.
Yes, you read that correctly. Shaw scored. Because the ball went in off the bar.
The fact that it then spun out of the goal, however, fooled Carr. If few others inside Tynecastle.
Lennon was given a telling-off by referee McLean for his complaints, the Hibs boss voicing some concerns after confirming with TV people behind the technical area — and the unused members of his squad sitting right beside them — that the visitors should have been a goal to the good.
While Lennon was taking his talking to, incidentally, there was a combined force of just one steward holding back the frothing tide right next to the dugout. Yeah, that’s not a risk. Out on the pitch, Hibs continued to be the better side. They would have just about deserved that early lead. Sure, they were always a bit suspect in the channels. But Hearts, with Esmael Goncalves isolated, were not doing enough to exploit the areas between central defenders and full-backs.
The home side didn’t even look bright on the break, appearing to play for time — and a breather — every time a Hibs attack fizzled out.
McGinn snatched at a dropping ball with his right foot inside the box after 24 minutes, a half-chance in a game short of genuine scoring opportunities.
A combination of Hearts playing an excellent offside line, repeatedly catching Boyle, Shaw and Anthony Stokes a half step on the wrong side, and some solid defending from Christophe Berra kept the green waves from getting keeper McLaughlin so much as a little bit wet.
It was taking its toll, though, not least in bookings, with Kyle Lafferty, Walker and David Milinkovic all shown yellow cards before half-time.
Hearts had a bit more oomph about them after the break, with Walker showing flashes of ability.
But their best moments were mostly produced by kicking the ball long and chasing, harrying and hassling. Against a Hibs defence often at full stretch, they almost got something going.
One overly optimistic handball shout aside, however, they didn’t give the home crowd a great many reasons to roar or cheer.
Hibs, for their part, were too often contained by a Hearts back four rejigged by the introduction of Aaron Hughes at right-back early in the second half. A man being sent on to do a man’s job.
Boyle had one shot over the bar, Shaw snapped one wide from a good position inside the box after more fine work from McGinn, and Paul Hanlon was hit in the chest by a corner from the midfielder.
But they never came close to recreating the moment of electrifying quality that should have earned them all three points. With a visible margin for error.