Derek McInnes wary of parents' taser as Hearts mimic Celtic and Rangers with Hibs sucker punch

The Gorgie side stretched their lead at the top to six points after a late winner from prospective new father Tomas Magnusson. The Icelandic midfielder's partner was due to give birth to their first child last Friday. The substitute was right on time when arriving to convert a cross from Harry Milne to give Hearts far more than just local bragging rights.

They have underlined their intention to keep leading from the front in the bid to bring the first Scottish league title to Tynecastle since 1960.

McInnes celebrated what proved to be the winner by picking up a nearby ball boy, something he has done before with the same ball boy. “I think his mother and father have got a taser for me!” he smiled afterwards. “I really need to leave him alone, with fear in his eyes when I run towards him. But no, it's good to, obviously when I go, we're all the same, we just have that sheer relation.

“I actually thought it was still a wee bit longer to go, I was a bit delighted when I realised there was only a few minutes left, I thought there was still about seven or eight minutes.”

McInnes scoffed at the idea that any Hearts fans will have been worried ab0ut the quality of the game or indeed performance from their side. “The first question I got back there from somebody was about the quality of the game and all the rest of it," he said. "Couldn't it give a ……… Honestly, go away. Honestly, forget it. Do you think fans are bothering with that?

“I've just likened it there to how many successful Celtic teams or successful Rangers teams just get the job done, win 1-0 down the road and nobody really cares about the performance too much,” he added. “Our supporters are only caring about it at the end there.

“Of course we want to play better, but derby wins are just about winning and it's not always about playing pretty football. It's not the most technical team that wins a derby all the time, it's the team with desire. I'd rather talk about Harry Milne's desire to get the byline, then the quality of the cross and the desire of Magnusson to make it into the box and run off his man and get it in the net.”

St Mirren setback is forgotten

McInnes praised his players for refusing to let setbacks like last midweek’s defeat against St Mirren in Paisley define their season. They keep coming up with big moments. “I think supporters will probably feel the way I do, that there's something going to happen,” he said. “We can recognise that we're not always great, and I've said this. I'm not pretending we're great, but you don't stay at the top of the league with just having desire. Desire's there in spades, but we normally can play better, and we normally have far more pressure, we normally get more goal-scoring opportunities, but even if we don't play well, we still think there's something there for us. Thankfully Big Tomas came up with that tonight.”

McInnes addressed Magnusson’s coming big event. “We think the baby will hopefully come before the weekend,” he said, with Hearts due to face title rivals Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday. “He's a young man, he's over here with his partner. It's been a big upheaval for him, but he has such a maturity. It’s another important goal for us. He's done ever so well for us, whether he starts or otherwise. I thought he was good at Tannadice, I thought he was good against Celtic out there.

"He is a bit unfortunate not to be starting games. But Beni (Baningime) has come back into the team. He has big experience for these games.

"At Easter Road in the second half, Beni had a big influence on us, so I was always mindful of that. But no, it's a busy time in his life, an important period in his life, and he's going to become a dad, which is brilliant for him. I just hope, as I say, everything goes OK on that front.”

The view from the Hibs camp

David Gray lamented the lapse in concentration that meant Hibs suffered a late derby defeat at Tynecastle for the second time this season.

The Easter Road side endured derby heartache in similar fashion in October when Craig Halkett struck a winner in stoppage time after Hibs had otherwise defended stoutly.

“I thought there was a real element of déjà vu, to be honest,” said the manager. “We've been here before, with nothing in the game, and then switching off from a free kick on the halfway line, turning back, then allow an easy cross and then allow a free shot in the box.

"So it's definitely avoidable from our point of view, which is hugely frustrating. But if you don't do the basics until the final whistle, 94 minutes, whatever it was tonight, that's what cost us, because I thought within the game, we certainly didn't deserve to lose it. But unfortunately, we're in the same position we found ourselves the last time we were here.

"I think there's nothing in the game, we restricted Hearts to very little. Their set pieces have always got that threat, they force you to defend.

I thought we defended them for 90 minutes, switched off for one wide free kick, didn't stop the cross and that's what cost us the game tonight.

"I think I'd have liked to have seen a little bit more quality at times. There were a couple of moments in the game where maybe the final pass let us down.There was one big chance in the first half, I think, when we break on them and Felix Passlack has it – a huge moment.

"Certainly as the game went on, I felt like if anybody was going to win, I felt like it was going to be us. It's easy to say that when you're standing at the side, but it certainly felt like that. I thought we had good elements of control in the game. Would I have liked us to have more quality? Yes, I thought it became scrappy.

“These games are quite often like that – very scrappy, very fast, very frantic. But I thought, as I say, we dealt with that quite well.

But we're going home with nothing, which is what makes it even more frustrating.”