Hibs star opens up on walking derby red card tightrope - and coming through Hearts clash unscathed

Four minutes into an Edinburgh Derby already fraught with tension, and Nectar Triantis looked up from his first challenge of the game to see referee Don Robertson flashing a yellow card. The last thing he needed, right?

Credit the big Aussie midfielder, then, for doing more than just getting through the next 86 minutes plus change without picking up a second booking at Easter Road on Sunday. Especially given, well, y’know …

Triantis was only just back from suspension when he lined up against Hearts, having picked up a one-game ban for a pair of bookings in the home loss to Motherwell. He went straight back into the team to face Hearts because club captain Joe Newell had done exactly the same thing, turning a caution into a sending off, in the defeat to Dundee United at Tannadice.

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So, yeah, it’s fair to say that there was a collective intake of breath when the Sunderland loanee fell foul of officialdom quite so early in a game never anything less than feisty. Even the player himself might have feared the worst.

“Yeah, it's something that I'm trying to get better at obviously and it's something that's not great as a player, getting cards - especially early on,” he said, adding. “But I think it's something that I can learn from.

“You’ve just got to stay disciplined and controlled which I thought I'd done for the rest of the game. Did I learn from my last experience? Well, I thought I did … until the first five minutes!”

Aware that he’d come in for some sharp public words of criticism from gaffer David Gray in the aftermath of that Motherwell mishap, Triantis admitted: “Yeah, it was fair. Not so much criticism, just a learning point for myself being a young player. How that red card can have an effect on the game. As you saw, we conceded after that, so I take full responsibility with the red card - because it's my actions. You do have to be careful at times, but you do have to learn from those things.”

Triantis has looked a lot more comfortable in central midfield than he did at centre-half during last season’s loan spell at Hibs. Indeed, when the Easter Road club returned for his services in the summer, everyone involved was at great pains to stress that he’d be coming back specifically to play as a No. 6.

Admitting that he sees this as his first-choice position, the 21-year-old said: “I think so, yeah. It's good to have that flexibility and versatility obviously as a footballer, especially with the modern game, everyone rotating and having that sort of understanding of two roles is a good thing to have personally.

“But I think moving forward I see myself more as a holding midfielder as you say. I think it suits my game really well. I think I have big characteristics and attributes for a holding midfielder.

“I think maybe with a different gaffer, a different style of play I could play at centre-half for another team. But for Hibernian, I think holding midfielder is good.”

Triantis is looking forward to coming up against former Central Coast Mariners team-mate Josh Nisbet in Dingwall tomorrow night, saying: “He's a good friend of mine. And yeah, he's a good player. Good, strong player so I expect a good battle - but obviously you have no friends when you cross the line.”