Boyle at the double as Hibs give Hearts a derby doing

● Tynecastle club rooted to foot of table ● Four defeats in a row for boss Stendel

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Jack Ross, who had enjoyed the better of his head-to-heads with Daniel Stendel when they were both operating in the English League One, picked up where he left off by orchestrating victory over the German once more, this time in their first Edinburgh derby.

Opting to play Boyle through the middle, the Australian striker was the difference between the capital foes, showing the composure and cutting edge so evidently missing from the home ranks.

The Tynecastle side had more possession, earned significantly more corners and racked up a greater tally of shots at goal but their issue was that too few of them were on target and none of them were good enough to beat visiting keeper Ofir Marciano.

At the other end, though, aided by some questionable

Gorgie defending, Boyle was clinical.

The opening goal came early in the match as Scott Allan hooked a high ball into the box and Christophe Berra didn’t attack it, instead allowing Boyle to latch onto it as it came down and the Hibs man volleyed it past Joel Pereira in the home goal.

On the back of two Old Firm defeats, it was the perfect start to the game for the Leith side, who had suffered defeat in the last derby, at Easter Road, and were looking for revenge.

Hearts boss Stendel had been absent from training in the build-up to this one after he returned to Germany for personal reasons. He had also chosen to give his squad Christmas Day off. They failed to reward his generosity but an increasingly frustrated figure in the technical area, the recent recruit, who became the first Hearts manager in 82 years to lose his first four games, insisted a festive day off was not the basis of the defeat.

“You think it’s the reason we didn’t win today? I think no. In the end, when you win you can say anything and it’s all right, when you lose it’s all bad,” said the German, who conceded that the job he faces to turn around performances and results at Hearts and guide the side up the league standings is probably more onerous than he had anticipated.

“I take responsibility for the decisions and I take responsibility for the game but some things I cannot change. I cannot play, I cannot score, I cannot defend,” he added.

“We tried to improve and I think you can see some players are improving and some players maybe not. I hope we can change some things but at the moment we need to work hard and change the result on Sunday.”

It could have been different if referee Don Robertson had seen fit to award a penalty soon after that breakthrough when Uche Ikpeazu, pictured inset, was grappled to the turf. But the big striker has become the little boy who cried wolf, and although he does have to weather his fair share of physical attention, the fact he is caught backing into defend