Scottish Premiership leaders digesting Edinburgh derby defeat

There isn’t much solace for Hearts after losing the Edinburgh derby. A meek performance for 70 minutes gave way to a late rally at Easter Road, but Hibs’ 3-0 advantage was too much to overhaul despite late goals from Lawrence Shankland and Cammy Devlin. Defeat against your biggest rivals always hurts and there is scant consolation to be found.

Coming to life in the closing stages of the game earned Hearts two goals and demonstrated what might have been had players applied themselves that way from kick-off. Some might have left Easter Road clinging to that final 20 minutes as a positive. However, Shankland wasn’t having any of it.

“No, I hate that. You turn up when you're 3-0 down, it's no use,” he stated. “I said that to the boys in the changing room. When it went to 3-1, we got the goal, that's when I first felt we had a wee bit of belief and a wee bit of play. Up until then, we were so wasteful in possession. On the other side of the game, Hibs were doing the basics better than us up to that point. Don't get me wrong, it's positive that we did finish the game strong, but I don't like taking credit for that because it's too late.

“I just don't think we were us. At the start of the game, we conceded very early. We speak about the threat they've got for crosses. We conceded two goals, both sides of the half, through crosses from the left-hand side. It's something we're frustrated about because we spoke about it and we were aware of it. We didn't do well enough to stop the crosses and we conceded, on our part, two poor goals. That's a frustration.

“The third one is horrific as well. You want to start the second half well, then you give them a goal like that. In a derby, teams don't need goals or confidence. We came here, we were high-flying. Obviously, giving them the goals just gives them a lift and makes them feel a part of the game. We were so cheap in possession as well. We kept kicking the ball out of play under no pressure. You can always give credit to the opposition when they beat you, but it's hard just not to be frustrated with ourselves because we weren't us.

“I felt, in the first half, we actually had quite a lot of the ball but we conceded two goals. Basically, identical positions - not blocking them from the left and their midfield runner goes and scores. We knew that was going to happen, so we took responsibility as a team to go and avoid that. It is a frustration.

“It's a frustration to be 1-0 down but not two. You go and concede another goal so close to half-time. If you get in at 1-0, you can fix it. And then the third one is just a disaster as well. It comes off the striker and just into Bowie's path. On our part, it's so frustrating because it's three goals you feel like you could have avoided pretty easily. But we'll take that away.”

As Premiership leaders with only one league loss before Christmas, Saturday’s derby was something of a wake-up call for Hearts. “It can be, aye, if that's the way the boys want to use it,” commented Shankland. “I think it's important we need a reaction from this game. It shows we can't just turn up to games. We're not good enough to be a team that just rocks up and plays for 30 minutes. If you do that then you'll get found wanting and teams will score against you and put you in positions like Saturday.

“We are going to lose games of football. It happens. We know that as a team and as a squad. We don't like to lose derbies, it's frustrating, it's a sore one. But we've no concern over losing a game. The important thing is how you bounce back. We've got another game next week to go and kick on.

“We're not a good enough team to just play for 30 minutes. We've not shown that we're good enough. We can't just turn up when we're 3-0 down. That's not going to happen. You're not going to win games like that. We've got to where we've got to now because we've been there for 90 minutes every game, producing the goods. Barring a couple, obviously, when you're not quite at it.

“For the large majority, we've been there for games. We've done the basics well. We know our fundamentals are the basics and that we play from there because we've got a bit of quality in the front areas. If you're going to concede goals as easy as we have, then you're going to make it hard for yourself.”

Shankland admitted he was left angry at the way the derby panned out. “I am, obviously. We've proved our worth so far this season. It's a big game you're coming into. You want to go and win a derby. It's a frustration that you come out of it and, playing as well as we have, we could have actually nicked something at the end and got a draw out of it. It just felt like, if we'd imposed ourselves on the game like that from the start, I think the game would have went the way the last 30 did. We let them off the hook.”