Mickey Weir delivers Hibs v Hearts derby verdict and a warning

There was no doubt Hibs deserved to win Saturday’s Edinburgh derby at Easter Road.

I was a little worried with some of the chances Hibs had missed to go in front. Opportunities are often few and far between in derbies and we’ve been stung a couple of times this season by not taking them when the game was still in the balance.

It was like most derbies in that there wasn’t too much in the game. To me it was always going to be the first goal that made the difference and thankfully Kevin Nisbet got it.

Hibs looked like the team that wanted it more. The disappointment of the week before at Tannadice, the players knew they needed a big performance and this is the type of game where you have to bring that. I still don’t think it was necessarily a great performance but derbies are all about results and they managed to get that.

Hibs' players celebrate at full-time after defeating Hearts in Saturday's Edinburgh derby. Picture: SNS

It had been nine games without beating Hearts and you never want to go that long without winning in this fixture. But I couldn’t understand how Hearts were so passive. Going into an Edinburgh derby the first thing you have to do is be aggressive, and to be aggressive in everything you do. Hibs more than matched Hearts and were the more aggressive side. That’s why they got the result.

I don’t think our goalkeeper even had too much to do. The lack of intensity from Hearts was surprising and Hibs dominated from start to finish. We never looked like losing the game. It looked like it was either going to be a 0-0 draw or a win to Hibs.

It means a lot to the supporters, to the Edinburgh public. The players need to realise this. It’s never nice to lose a derby and you can only rectify it by winning the next game. It takes a lot of commitment and I think the players showed that on this occasion.

It was a huge result for Lee Johnson with pressure starting to build again following the run of four straight defeats. Now it’s about finding that consistency. Yes, it’s great to beat Hearts, but it’s only one result. We need to get concrete performances week in, week out and it’s not been happening. There’s still a lot of work to be done.

This win came just six days after we lost at Tannadice to a team who hadn’t won in ages. It was a very poor performance and there’s still a bit to be done to convince supporters that we’re on the right road.

You look at Aberdeen. They’re now seven points ahead of us. That seemed inconceivable when we defeated them 6-0 in late January. Football can change very quickly, as I’ve always said. You just need to look at what’s happened at Hearts. It’s good that we stuck with Johnson instead of continually sacking managers, but we still need to be doing more.

If we lose this weekend we could end up in the bottom six. We’ll be going against a St Johnstone side fighting to stay in the division. These are the sort of games, like the United one, that we need to start winning regularly if we’re going to go anywhere as a club.

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