Hearts boss challenges players to be more clinical after third derby draw

Hearts head coach Eva Olid in discussion with assistant boss Sean Burt during Saturday's Edinburgh derby. Picture: SNS

Eva Olid challenged her Hearts players to be more clinical after the third consecutive Edinburgh derby draw of the season.

For the third match in succession, a clash between Hibs and the Gorgie Girls finished 1-1 after Ciara Grant cancelled out Eilidh Adams’ opener with a late penalty at Easter Road.

Hearts have been above their neighbours in the table for each and every one of these fixtures but have yet to taste victory. Olid was pleased with the display from her side, she just wants to see them become ruthless when opportunities present themselves from open play.

“I’m so happy with the performance,” she told the Evening News. “We played good football, a nice possession game, but we need to score more goals. We are creating the opportunities but we don’t put the ball in the back of the net and that’s so frustrating.

“We didn’t have much time to prepare for this match because we played Celtic on Wednesday. We sacrificed that game for this one to be good today, rotating the squad to keep players fresh and not have more injuries, because we had a few players out today.

“We’re always working in training on the style of play that I’m trying to get the players to play. They showed that progression today, especially with the ball.”

After the match at Tynecastle earlier this year Olid revealed she had gone through her players at the break, believing they hadn’t rose to the occasion. While Hearts found themselves a goal down once again at the conclusion of the first 45 minutes, the Spaniard wasn’t quite so blunt with her half-time assessment.

“Today we were losing but my message wasn’t as last time,” she said. “We were performing well, we just had to modify a few things that we needed to improve. And I think we did that in the second half because after the break we had more waves of attack. They were creating opportunities on the counter attack but we were dominating.

“The crowd was a lot less than the last couple of games but I thought that put less pressure on the players. It was still a good crowd for a Saturday night.”