Mixu tells why hibs paid penalty

Easter Road boss insists his players had enough chances to win derby despite referee's decision to deny Riordan spot-kick at 1-0

HIBS manager Mixu Paatelainen refused to blame referee Eddie Smith as his side were pegged back on their home ground in the first Edinburgh derby of the season.

Instead the Finn highlighted the fact that his players had ample opportunities to claim victory for themselves but failed to capitalise on their chances.

The Easter Road outfit had raced out of the starting blocks against their old rivals, netting the opener after just 78 seconds and could have added to their advantage before Bruno Aguiar levelled matters just before the break.

However, sandwiched in between those two strikes the home outfit were denied a stonewall penalty when Eggert Jonsson took the feet from Derek Riordan just inside the box.

It was a clear foul but the whistler didn't agree and waved play on and that was a decision which came back to haunt Hibs. Paatelainen agreed that the referee's failure to award a spot-kick changed the course of the entire game but felt that his side had done enough to win the game for themselves.

He said: "I thought that we created more chances than Hearts and that we should have won the game, obviously being 1-0 up so early. It was disappointing to lose the free-kick and the goal so close to half-time because it would have been nice to have gone in with the advantage at the break.

"I also felt that we were denied a penalty but the referee thought otherwise so we can have no complaints about that.

"The second half though, might have gone either way and both teams had chances, it was just a matter of who had the players with more composure in front of goal.

"These things happen very quickly, they are big decisions and sometimes referees get them right, sometimes they get them wrong. Unfortunately for us, this time he got it wrong. I didn't speak to the referee because I know that his answer would have been that he didn't think it was a foul.

"There is no point in dwelling on it because they do a very honest job out there.

"The more people that talk about the referee, including managers, then the more difficult their jobs get because they are under the microscope.

"It is a turning point though, it is a big call, but there is no point in making headlines about it. We must also concentrate on our passing, I feel that the defenders must take more care with their passing, obviously because we only have three in the midfield. At times I felt that our passing was a little bit reckless."

Hibs striker Fletcher though, was in no doubt that his side would have gone on to win the game if they had been given the chance to go two goals ahead so early in the game, insisting: "If we'd got the penalty then we would have won the game.

"If it had been outside the box he would have given a free-kick so I don't know why he didn't give the penalty."

Paatelainen's side got off to the best possible start when they took the lead with just over one minute of the match gone.

It was Derek Riordan's first derby match in two years but it didn't take him long to make an impression, back-heeling the ball for Colin Nish and when he fired it across goal on the angle, Steven Fletcher was there to stab it into the net from just inside the six-yard box.

This was one of the most entertaining derbies in some time and it was end-to-end stuff for long periods of the game, in fact Hearts could have hit back five minutes later when Laryea Kingston picked up possession on the left of the box and floated the ball into the edge of the six-yard area. Skipper Christophe Berra rose to meet it and his header had Yves Ma-Kalambay beaten but came bouncing back off the top of the crossbar and away from danger.

It was a frenetic opening and the home side had another chance when Dean Shiels fed David van Zanten down the right and the former St Mirren man whipped a ball deep to the far post where Riordan was lurking but the striker could only drill the ball into the side netting from a tight angle.

The Jambos' best chance of the opening stages came when Kingston produced a brilliant ball through the middle for Christian Nade, completely cutting out Steven Thicot, but Nade couldn't do the pass justice and was too slow to meet it, allowing Ma-Kalambay just enough time to come racing off his line to clear. The loose ball only went as far as Kingston again, but this time the Ghana internationalist sent his effort well over the crossbar.

Marian Kello, who had looked extremely shaky throughout the first half, almost landed his side in it five minutes later when a poor clearance landed right at the feet of Riordan, however the former Celtic striker stumbled over the ball. When he regained his composure though, he appeared to be brought down by Eggert Jonsson inside the box but the Hibees' shouts for a penalty were waved away by Smith.

The Jambos could have levelled when Aguiar nodded on to Nade and the big striker tried to feed the ball into the path of Michael Stewart. It didn't quite make it but when the ball cannoned off a Hibs defender it landed for Aguiar again but the Portuguese sent his effort over Ma-Kalambay's net from just outside the box.

Just a couple of minutes before the half-time whistle though, Hearts got their reward when they won a free-kick after Nish brought Lee Wallace down right on the 18-yard line. Aguiar and Andrew Driver hovered over it but it was the Portuguese who took it, curling the ball low into the right-hand bottom corner of the net, just beyond the reach of the diving Ma-Kalambay.

Hearts boss Csaba Laszlo revealed afterwards that Kello had been suffering from mild concussion in the first half, forcing him to replace the keeper with debutant Janos Balogh, although the away support would still have been breathing a sigh of relief at Kello's withdrawal after a decidedly shaky display. But it was at the other end that the keeper had to be on his toes, Ma-Kalambay forced to come out to smother the ball before Nade could connect. Ma-Kalambay had also looked nervous since Hearts' leveller and failed to convince when Driver burst forward, leaving three Hibs defenders in his wake. His shot took a deflection but it should still have been relatively straightforward for the goalie, however he stumbled to his left trying to get enough on it to take it round the post.

He could only make the slightest of touches and instead it came back out to Kingston and his thundering effort crashed off a Hibs defender and away from danger. Hibs then won a free kick in a dangerous position with 20 minutes left when Jonsson again brought down Riordan. The striker dusted himself down and took the free-kick but Balogh was equal to it and got down well to his left to collect the low, curling shot. Paatelainen, who again opted for three men in attack added: "We wanted to be positive, we wanted to start the game well and it was the perfect start.

"They had a five-man midfield and one man up front and sometimes their extra man meant that they had the midfield area. But on the other hand we had three strikers up front who are all capable of scoring goals and I feel that games are won and lost in the penalty boxes and if you are strong offensively then you are able to win the game."