Source: FOOTYMAD
Hibs Do Not Have The Killer Instinct
One up in terms of goals and players, Hibs fail to kill off Hearts Hibs blew their chance to get one over their city rivals today. Wrong choices when they got to the action end of the pitch made a nonsense of their numerical and processional advantage. Hearts were one up thanks to Ryan Stevenson being cool in placing the bal in the home net before Marius Zaliukas was sent off just after 33 minutes for a foul in the box on Akpo Sodje. However, despite scoring from the resultant penalty, courtesy of Liam Miller, Hibs failed to make Hearts pay more of a penalty. Hibs manager Colin Calderwood was not the only person at Easter Road who believes that his team were to blame for throwing away the chance to beat Hearts. Calderwood said: "We edged towards excitement and elation and we took it away from ourselves. We never got a minute to enjoy the second goal. They were better than us in the first 20-30 minutes and the red card and penalty changed the game entirely. The numerical advantage put us in the ascendancy.'' Stephen Elliott, who scored in the game earlier in the season, claimed his team were happy with a point after battling for so long with ten men. He said: "The way the game went I'm sure we would have taken a point, especially going behind with so little time remaining. Me and Ryan (Stevenson) up front were causing them trouble but the red card changed the game completely and we did well to stay in the game for such a long time.'' The former Preston striker echoed Calderwood's comments that Hearts had been the better side before the penalty incident. He went on: "We started the game really brightly and looked lively right from the off and they were struggling to live with us, it was great going behind and scoring the equaliser." Elliott played down any chance of third-placed Hearts catching the Old Firm at the top of the SPL, but believes that the squad has proven their quality amid an ongoing injury crisis He said: "I think we have just got to take each game as it comes and look to win it. We have proved we have got a really good squad, players came in today who haven't played a lot of football but did very well and we have great camaraderie."
