‘Dominant’ Hibs delight boss Lennon
NEIL LENNON praised his Hibs players for the best performance of his reign after they emerged victorious from the first top-flight Edinburgh derby since 2014. And he believes that the midfield pairing of John McGinn and Dylan
McGeouch, who powered his team to the win over Hearts, are playing as well as anyone in Scotland at the moment. Insisting the newly promoted Easter Road club could have won by more than just Simon Murray’s early strike, former Celtic boss Lennon declared: ‘I’m very, very happy. You know me — it takes a lot to make me happy! ‘The first half was perfect, in terms of intensity and pace; maybe only Celtic could live with that. ‘The scoreline flatters Hearts. We were thoroughly dominant. ‘I’ve been involved in a lot of derbies and that is as good as any in terms of feeling. We came through it brilliantly. ‘I think we should have won by more but it’s great to have a clean sheet.’ Asked if he had expected more from Hearts, Lennon insisted: ‘That’s down to us. We forced the game. We pressed them, made them make mistakes. ‘I can only be very vocal about a very special performance, as good as I’ve seen here. ‘There’s a rawness about the derby. You can see how much it means to them. ‘I think we’ve played well against Celtic away, Aberdeen here, Celtic in the (Betfred Cup) semi-final. ‘We haven’t been far away. I’m very happy with how things are going. ‘We were light as well — we lost Anthony Stokes, Danny Swanson, we don’t have Darren McGregor or Liam Fontaine. But the players out there did the club proud.’ Murray, making his first start in over a month, took just three minutes to bag a first goal since August — earning himself hero status among the Hibs faithful. Lennon said: ‘It’s a great finish. He’s been champing at the bit, a bit off colour in the last few games. ‘Seeing Oli Shaw coming on at the weekend gave him a shot in the arm. And he responded. ‘But we had great players all over the park. The two wingers were fantastic. Brandon Barker was incredible. ‘The three midfielders were great. We know what Marvin Bartley does in there. Dylan McGeouch and John McGinn are as good as anyone in the country at the minute. Dylan’s football was unbelievable tonight. The one where he dinked it over someone and played in a great ball, that’s priceless. ‘Dylan’s work rate and physicality have improved. We’re getting the best out of him. It’s the injury problems. He would be in and out (previously) with hamstring problems. But a new specialist seems to have got to the bottom of it. He’s playing wonderful football.’ Lennon said he thought young Hearts midfielder Harry Cochrane could have walked for a foul on McGinn, explaining: ‘Yeah. There is no intention to play the ball, just trying to take John out. ‘It’s a cynical professional foul.’