In the week when Hibs approved a multi-million investment from Bill Foley, the Bournemouth owner, which suggests an exciting future for the club, their supporters were given plenty of present-day encouragement after they outplayed their bitter rivals at Tynecastle, only to be denied victory by a highly controversial equalising penalty from the Hearts talisman Lawrence Shankland.
The Easter Road club passed a motion at their AGM which is expected to lead to over £6 million being invested in the club by the Black Knight Football Club, who own Bournemouth, FC Lorient and Auckland.
On the pitch, Hibs have had an underwhelming season at best and remain 21 points behind their Edinburgh rivals after last night. But there have been signs recently that the manager Nick Montgomery may be starting to get it right and they were certainly the better team in Gorgie.
They took a deserved first half lead though Emiliano Marcondes — on loan from Bournemouth of course — but inexplicably sat back for the only time in the game and conceded a penalty which looked soft in the extreme, yet was still awarded after a lengthy and ultimately pointless VAR check. Shankland converted. Hibs dominated after the break, but failed to find a winner.
Hearts made three changes from their weekend 5-0 humbling by Rangers with Scott Fraser, Alan Forrest and Cammy Devlin all coming in for Kye Rowles, Beni Baningime and Jorge Grant, while Hibs were unchanged from their win against Dundee.
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And it was the visitors who certainly started the more confidently, knocking the ball around and biting and snapping into early tackles. It took Hearts fully 15 minutes to give themselves a shake and remind themselves they were in a derby.
However, there was precious little in the way of chances, with Martin Boyle not having the pace to outstrip the Hearts defence after the ball fell favourably for him on the halfway line. Perhaps the version of Boyle before a knee operation might have been able to get a shot away to test Zander Clark.
The game finally came to life in the 28th minute, when Hibs took a lead that was just about deserved on the balance of play. Boyle was left in the clear when Frankie Kent seemed to stumble. He tried to dink the ball over Clark, but although Nathan Atkinson was there to just about clear off the line, he only succeeded in teeing the ball up for Marcondes to gleefully guide the ball into the net in front of the stunned home fans. That should have prompted a reaction from the hosts and it did, with Stephen Kingsley wasting a free kick from an excellent position and Shankland seeing a shot blocked as the Leith side suddenly had to put all hands on deck as they got pushed further and further back.
Hibs needed to hold on until the break, but they conceded a penalty three minutes before the interval when Will Fish clattered into Kenneth Vargas after overrunning the ball in the box. The referee, Kevin Clancy, pointed to the spot after a four-minute VAR check in which the official went to the monitor. He stuck by his original decision, which was all the more remarkable considering TV pictures showed there was no actual contact on the Costa Rican international.
With the kick right in front of the Roseburn Stand, the baying visiting support flung every conceivable object that wasn’t tied down at the Hearts captain in a bid to put him off, but his spot kick was exemplary and high past David Marshall, who had dived the right way, for his 27th goal of the season for club and country.
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Yet, Hibs then had two huge chances to restore their lead in first-half injury time, when only a brilliant save from Clark prevented Marcondes scoring his second, and from the resulting corner Dylan Vente’s back-post effort was cleared off the the line by Kingsley.
Hibs again steamed out after the restart and Vente went close with a flicked effort that was cleared off the line by Kent as the visitors tried to regain the initiative.
Hearts clung on under a barrage of Hibs attacks and are now 12 points ahead of Kilmarnock in third place with Hibs a point off the top six.
Hearts (4-2-3-1): Z Clark 7 — N Atkinson 6, F Kent 5, S Kingsley 6, A Cochrane 6 (K Rowles 88min) — C Devlin 7 (J Grant 64, 3), C Nieuwenhof 6 — K Vargas 6 (F Pollock 88), S Fraser 5 (B Baningime 55, 4), A Forrest 6 — L Shankland 7. Booked Devlin, Vargas.
Hibernian (4-2-3-1): D Marshall 6 — L Miller 6, W Fish 6, R Bushiri 7, J Obita 6 — J Newell 6, N Moriah-Welsh 6 ( D Levitt 76) — M Boyle 7, E Marcondes 7 (N Triantes 80), M Maolida 7 — D Vente 6 (E Youan 69, 3). Booked Bushiri.
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Referee K Clancy. Attendance 18,936.
