NEIL Lennon said his Hibs players had done the club proud as a third-minute Simon Murray goal proved sufficient to win the first top flight Edinburgh derby since April 2014. The Easter Road side shrugged off the disappointment of Saturday’s BetFred Cup semi-final defeat to Celtic to dominate last night’s match and are now unbeaten in their last eight capital grudge matches. With their midfield of Dylan McGeouch and John McGinn in imperious form, Lennon said this win felt as good as any of his previous derby wins and only the Parkhead side could match them right now.
“I’m very, very happy,” said Lennon, who also felt 16-year-old Hearts substitute Harry Cochrane could have walked for a 'cynical, professional foul' on McGinn late on. “And you know me, it takes a lot to make me happy. I’ve been in a lot of derbies, and that was as good as any in terms of feeling.
"The first half was perfect, intensity and pace, maybe only Celtic could live with that," he added. "The scoreline flatters Hearts. McGeouch and McGinn are as good as anyone in the country at the minute. More importantly, it’s three points, back in top six, punters going home happy. I can only be very vocal about a very special performance, as good as I’ve seen here.
"It’s a great finish from Simon. He’s been champing at the bit, because he’s been a bit off colour in last few games. But seeing Oli [Shaw] coming on at weekend perhaps gave him shot in arm."
His opposite number Craig Levein said he admitted he had expected better of his team. "I have no complaints about the effort the players put into the match," he said. "They just didn’t pass the ball well enough.
“The first half was really poor, we didn’t really get going at all,” he said. “I didn’t feel we were getting cut open but we never got it going the way we needed to. I am disappointed, I expected better, I didn’t feel we got to the levels we needed to get to, to have a chance of winning this match. But we move on now to Saturday.”
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