Lennon: No goal call a ‘disgrace’
● Hibs manager slams assistant referee ● Levein hails Hearts’ unbeaten run
Neil Lennon branded the decision not to award his Hibs side a derby goal a “disgrace” as both he and Hearts boss Craig Levein agreed Oli Shaw’s effort had crossed the line.
Shaw’s early effort at Tynecastle came down off the bar and bounced over the line but was ruled not to be a goal by far side assistant referee Sean Carr. Afterwards, Lennon said: “It was a disgrace. Daylight over the line. How he did not see that is beyond me.”
“It’s a goal, everyone could see it. You could tell by way it came out of the goal.”
The incident was the obvious talking point in a 0-0 draw covered live by Sky Sports, meaning Carr’s error was immediately apparent.
Lennon quickly had it confirmed Hibs had been robbed of a goal but said he could tell from the touchline the ball had gone in, describing the error as “making a mockery of the game” in Scotland.
Levein admitted Hearts had benefited from a significant break.
“I think maybe it was a centimetre over the line,” he said.
The Tynecastle manager added goalkeeper Jon Mclaughlin also knew it was a goal. “He said to me he thought it was in,” explained Levein. “We’ve had a lot of things go against us in recent times, so we’ll take that one.”
Lennon was not so sanguine so soon after Hibs were denied a penalty in the recent 2-1 defeat to Rangers when David Bates handed a cross from Efe Ambrose in the box.
He said: “It’s another big, big decision that went against us again – there was a handball against Rangers and again tonight. That’s costing us important points.
“We were by far the better team on difficult pitch. So that’s great for my players. But I should be sitting here talking about a great win.
“He [Carr] has to get it right. It’s a goal. A goal is a goal.
“I know we’re all about a video ref. Sky are here, the fourth official only needs to check and see it’s a goal. He said he couldn’t get a good view of it and the linesman didn’t see it.
“The linesman saw every offside in the first half yet he didn’t get the important one.
“These could cost us at the end of the season. All the odds were against us, we were hearing all about what would happen to us here. It’s a hard one to take.”
Lennon confirmed there had been no apology from referee Steven Mclean, but there was little the official could do after his assistant signalled play on.
“No, he didn’t acknowledge that he got it wrong,” said Lennon. “Because he didn’t know whether he’d got it wrong at the time. This is a huge game. It’s live on TV. And it’s making a mockery of the game.”
Levein was the happier manager after Hearts extended their unbeaten run to eight games. They have now kept five successive clean sheets. “We were better in the second half, still defended well but passed the ball better,” he said.
“We can do better than that. We’re unbeaten for eight in a row. Another 62 and we get Celtic’s record!”
No one comes to an Edinburgh derby expecting to be charmed by its sophistication. This was as poor a spectacle as anything served up by these two sides in recent times.
Sadly for the errant officials, or at least one in particular, this meant Hibs’ ghost goal, scored by teenager Oli Shaw early in a game that produced barely another scoring chance, accumulated even greater relevance.
Hibs will feel they earned a moral victory on account of Shaw’s goal not counting. Assistant referee Sean Carr judged the ball had not crossed the line once it had bounced down off the crossbar when it did – and then some.
This incident was early in the match. But, on reflection, following all 95 minutes – referee Steven Mclean compounded Carr’s mistake by playing five minutes of injury time which were as awful as the previous 90 – the goal was probably deserved by Hibs as well as valid. However, neither team warranted too much sympathy on account of their collusion in such a dire match.
Once they processed their anger at having been denied a goal, Hibs will feel satisfied at having prolonged their unbeaten run against their rivals. It now stands at nine matches, with this being their fourth draw in succession at Tynecastle.
Intensity is taken as read in these games. But judging by how they started Hibs seemed especially desperate not to surrender their unbeaten record over recent seasons. This motivation appeared to trump Hearts’ own desperation to finally record another victory after eight games and three-and-a-half long years.
No discussion of the match can fail to record the impact of the failure to award Hibs’ perfectly good goal after seven minutes. It was particularly wounding for Shaw, whose clever flick from Martin Boyle’s cross came down off the bar and bounced a yard down over the line. Much has been made of Hearts’ teenagers of late, but it was the Hibs youngster, only 19 and still buoyed by having scored a winner four days earlier over Ross County, who was robbed of another moment to treasure.
Carr kept his flag down as Jon Mclaughlin reached behind him and clawed the ball back, his optimism rewarded by the official’s error. Television repeats are a theme of Christmas and these replays will be as unwelcome if you happen to be Carr.
Lennon quickly learned just how far over the ball had been. In truth, it seemed obvious enough from seats in the main stand. The Hibs manager gestured towards the directors’ box like a proud angler relaying the deeds of a recent prize catch as he sought to emphasise the distance by which the ball crossed the line.
An aggrieved Lennon had to be spoken to by referee Steven Mclean shortly afterwards. The Hibs manager, back in a place and in a specific area with dark associations for him, showed impressive good humour towards the end of the half after reacting to Paul Hanlon’s decision to go for goal rather than head back across the six-yard box with an anguished scream: “Why did he do that?!” The cry from behind the dug-out brought a smile from Lennon: “Because he’s sh*te!”
There was precious else to report in a first half where football seemed an afterthought. It was more reason, from a neutral’s point of view, to lament the one genuine move of quality resulting in a goal that never was. Mcginn sprayed a ball wide to Boyle who managed to get beyond Jamie Brandon, something he did not manage enough, before crossing for Shaw. The rest is now only pointless barroom discussion.
On such a physically demanding night, Levein felt it was the place for just one teenager – Brandon started at leftback for the third successive game. Of their other starlets recently given playing time, Anthony Mcdonald looked on from the bench, the suspended Harry Cochrane from the stand.
Mcginn spoke in the days prior to the match of finding that he’s becoming a marked man. He was involved in some early jousts with Kyle Lafferty and Jamie Walker – indeed the latter was booked after one late challenge on the midfield-
er. But, perhaps surprisingly, it was Lewis Stevenson who seemed to bear the brunt of the most obviously rough attention. Both Lafferty and David Milinkovic were cautioned for late tackles on the wing-back.
Whatever football was played, and there was not a lot, came from the visitors. Walker did lift a shot over the bar early in the game. Lafferty sclaffed an effort wide from a good position after being found by Walker shortly after half-time. He will know he should have scored.
Lennon responded to a sustained period of Hearts’ pressure by replacing Shaw with Simon Murray and then Boyle with Brandon Barker. As someone remarked as Shaw left the field: “He took his goal well.”
The Hibs manager then replaced Barker, who quickly sustained a knock, with striker Deivydas Matulevicius, who has been told he can leave Easter Road, coming on.
But it was no surprise that a match so lacking in imagination and verve failed to conjure up such an obvious potential storyline as a Lithuanian coming in from the cold to score the winner.
HEARTS: Mclaughlin, Randall (Hughes 49), Souttar, Berra, Brandon,, Cowie, Buaben, Milinkovic (Callachan 83), Walker, Goncalves, Lafferty. Subs not used: Hamilton,stockton, Grzelak, Henderson, Mcdonald. HIBERNIAN: Marciano, Ambrose, Mcgregor, Hanlon, Boyle (Barker 74), Mcgeouch, Bartley, Mcginn, Stevenson, Stokes, Shaw (Simon Murray 72), Barker (Matulevicius 86). Subs not used: Swanson, Gray, Slivka, Dabrowski.