Lawrence Shankland kept his cool with the ball cradled under his arm as objects including a pie were thrown at him from the Hibs end as VAR considered a penalty claim deep into the first-half at rain-soaked Tynecastle.
After a lengthy delay and a visit to the pitchside monitor, referee Kevin Clancy pointed to the spot and Shankland fired the ball high into the opposition net to level at 1-1 two minutes into injury time.
It was his 26th goal of another productive season and the penalty was awarded after Will Fish was adjudged to have fouled Kenneth Vargas.
Both managers criticised the throwing of objects, but Nick Montgomery, Hibs’ manager, felt his men deserved three points but Myziane Maolida had a golden opportunity to claim Hibs first Premiership win at Tynecastle for five seasons with 20 minutes remaining, heading tamely wide after a pin-point cross from the left. He held his head in his hands.
Steven Naismith, Hearts’ head coach, said both teams had chances and added: “Both teams could say: ‘We could have won that’. The quality was missing.”
He added: “Going behind, we showed good resilience to get back in it, but it was just that final moment. At times, we made the wrong choices.”
Vargas, was an example. The Costa Rican foward blasted over twice without testing Hibs’ goalkeeper, David Marshall, when in good positions during a frantic, fiesty game where football took second place.
Naismith said that Hibs have a lot of pace and they are physical but he said: “The last Derby was poor, but it is a Derby. We have young players experiencing this for the first time. so there are positives to take out of it.”
This game, however, cried out for a player to put his foot on the ball and dictate play, but physical replaced finesse.
There were, however, touches of quality. Emiliano Hansen displayed calmness before he was substituted with 11 minutes left, while others darted around the pitch.
He picked his spot to fire home a rebound following a goal-line clearance by Hearts’ defender Nathaniel Atkinson from a shot from quicksilver Martin Boyle after 28 minutes.
That opportunity was a reward for a strong press from the visitors who also forced Hearts’ Scottish international goalkeeper, Zander Clark, to save another effort from Emiliano, this time from close range.
Dylan Vente had two efforts cleared which appeared to be on target and Jordan Obita came close in the dying minutes.
Montgomery said he was disappointed for the fans and the players and added: “I thought we were brilliant.
“You have to give them credit, they blocked a lot of stuff and cleared four off the line which were goal-bound. We had enough chances to win two games. We deserved three points.
“I thought we deserved a clean sheet. I was proud of the boys efforts and I thought the atmosphere was outstanding.”
So, both sides move on. Hearts host a rampant Celtic on Sunday (noon) and they claimed a 7-1 victory over Dundee at Parkhead with seven different scorers, six of the goals coming by half-time, while Hibs are at home to Ross County on Saturday (15.00) having earned four points from their last two games.
PICTURES: Shankland and Emiliano celebrate after scoring at Tynecastle. Pictures by David Mollison
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