Hearts claim they let Hibs 'off the hook' - it might have been the other way round

“We let them off the hook,” was how Hearts skipper Lawrence Shankland assessed things afterwards, which was one way of looking at it. Hibs could argue that they were the ones who let the opposition off the hook. At 3-0 up and with Hearts, in the words of their own manager Derek McInnes, “losing their wherewithal”, more home goals looked supremely possible. Indeed, this seemed likely. Easter Road was in ferment. The home fans wanted four, five, maybe even six or, dare we say it, seven? It was the right time of year after all.

Hearts settled and claimed a foothold through Shankland’s header after 75 minutes. When Cammy Devlin tapped in a second, smelling salts were required in some areas of the stadium. Here we go again. Were Hibs about to bring their sesquicentennial celebrations to a conclusion in the most Hibs way possible? By losing a three-goal lead in the derby 150 years almost to the day since the fixture was first played?

They might have done so had it not been for Raphael Sallinger, who certainly earned his corn with two late saves. The pick of the stops was from Shankland, whose near post effort looked to be going in all the way until the Austrian stuck out a boot. “When we conceded the second goal, the mindset was, ‘I will not let them get another goal, I just want to close the doors’," reflected Sallinger. "And that is what I did.”

The keeper remembered wanting just to kick the ball as far down the pitch as possible from kick-off after Hearts’ second goal. Nice idea, but it was always going to come back again. Hearts had at least two more good chances to equalise as they sought to gain something from what had been a seemingly hopeless situation. It’s a trait that is often said to be a mark of champions. On this occasion, they fell just short although few Hibs fans would have felt confident about holding out even a few minutes longer.

While losing a derby is never a satisfactory outcome, the maroon half of the city can draw some succour from the Tynecastle side’s spirited response. Just don’t propose this line of thinking to Shankland, whose anger afterwards was plain for all to see.

“You turn up when you're 3-0 down, it's nae use,” he insisted. “I said that to the boys in the changing room. It actually took us to 3-1. When it went 3-1, we got the goal, that's when I first felt we had a wee bit of belief and a wee bit of play. Up until then, we were so wasteful in possession. Hibs were doing the basics better than us to that point. Don't get me wrong, it's positive that we did finish the game strong, but I don't like taking credit for that because it's too late.”

He insisted that had Hearts imposed themselves on the game the way that they did in the last half an hour, they would have speared the hosts. This is why he considered Hibs had been "let off the hook", which might raise eyebrows down Leith way.

Hibs had simply not allowed Hearts to adopt any kind of game plan. One goal to the good after three minutes, following Jamie McGrath’s strike, they hustled the visitors out of their stride.

Hearts have the chance to return to winning ways on Saturday against bottom club Livingston. Hibs, meanwhile, have a midweek fixture against Aberdeen, whom they have now moved above in the Premiership standings. Sallinger noted that Saturday was the first time this season the Easter Road side have posted a victory over a team higher in the league.

Nicky Cadden could be out for a spell having aggravated a calf injury. Hearts, meanwhile, are looking forward to finally welcoming forward Islam Chesnokov, signed on a pre-contract from FC Tobol, to the club in the coming days. Dutch right-back Jordi Altena of RKC Waalwijk is also in their sights, with the derby having underlined the need for reinforcement in this area. Two of Hibs’ three goals came down the Hearts right.

“We're quite far down the line with one or two other things that we're looking to try and do,” said McInnes. “We've still got (Pierre Landry) Kabore away at the African nations. We'll see how that plays out. We've got a plan of what we want to do. We're hoping we get a couple of those signings in in the early part of the window. We'll see where we go from there.”