Crisis club Hearts were handed a massive boost as they secured a vital 1-0 win over Edinburgh rivals Hibernian in a fiercely contested match at Tynecastle.
Calum Paterson grabbed the only goal of the match in the 71st minute to hand the beleaguered Hearts fans something to cheer as their side starts to eat into the 15 points deduction they began the season with as punishment for entering administration in the summer.
Hibs had been expected to go into the first derby of the season as overwhelming favourites but the Easter Road club have had a terrible start to the new campaign having lost all three of their competitive matches, including a record 9-0 aggregate loss to Malmo in their Europa League qualifier.
With both sides desperate to impress, the match wasn’t short of passion and aggression, with four players on each side booked, but opportunities were few and far between.
It took until the half hour mark before a shot on target but things improved in the second half with Hibs enjoying their best spell of the match before Paterson leapt to bullet a header past Ben Williams.
The goal sealed the ‘Jambos’ their first derby win since March 2012 and heaps the pressure on under-fire Hibs boss Pat Fenlon.
Hearts manager Gary Locke was delighted with his side’s work rate.
“I thought we worked hard last week without having any real end product. Today we were a little bit better in the final third,” Locke said.
“It was a great cross from Dylan McGowan and a great header from Calum and it was a goal worthy of winning any game.”
Hibs boss Fenlon thought his side had been unlucky to lose.
“I thought we were on top when they scored and I don’t think there was too much between us in the game to be honest,” Fenlon said.
“I think they had one chance in the game and scored off it. The first goal is always very important but the disappointing thing is we were in the ascendancy at that point.”
At Tynecastle, Hearts manager Gary Locke made two changes from the side that lost to St Johnstone while Hibs handed Rowan Vine his league debut for the club after he missed out through suspension last week.
The first real flashpoint of the derby happened in the 25th minute when a skirmish broke out after Jamie Hamill clashed with Kevin Thomson with Scott Robinson and Vine picking up yellow cards.
It took until the 32nd minute for either side to get a shot on target but Jamie MacDonald easily dealt with Vine’s drilled shot from the edge of the box.
That spurred Hearts into life and Williams had to be at full stretch to stop a fiercely driven 20 yard free-kick from Hamill.
Hamill then exchanged a couple of passes with Jason Holt before trying his luck with a shot from 25 yards out but Williams saved well.
Former Hearts player Fraser Mullen then picked up a booking on his first return to Tynecastle for a rash challenge before Calum Paterson was shown a yellow card for his part in a mini-shoving match.
The second half started off in a more positive fashion with James Collins fizzing a shot on the turn just wide after out muscling the Hearts defence. Williams then had to leap to pluck a rasping strike from Hamill out of the air as it headed towards the top corner.
The visitors were enjoying their best spell of the match when Paterson fired Hearts in front in the 71st minute.
Dylan McGowan sent over a perfect cross from the right and Paterson rose above the Hibs defence to power header past Williams and send the home fans wild.
Hearts lifted by derby win over Hibs
