Whittaker left with post-match blues

STEVEN WHITTAKER today admitted he was still shaking his head in disbelief at missing the chance to become Hibs' derby day hero after watching his shot hit both Hearts goalposts and bounce to safety.

The Easter Road star thought he'd brought the ten-man Hibees level for the second time in a pulsating clash at Tynecastle as he burst forward to latch onto striker Chris Killen's cleverly-placed pass.

As the ball left his right boot it appeared destined for the top right-hand corner but it struck the inside of Craig Gordon's post before whistling across goal and striking the woodwork on the other side, the Hearts goalkeeper later claiming to have got the merest of touches to the ball with his pinky.

Not only would it have been the Scotland B internationalist's first derby goal but his first of the season, one which would almost have certainly earned John Collins' team the point they felt they at least deserved.

Instead, Whittaker and his team-mates were left to ponder on what might have been, goals from Chris Killen and Dean Shiels cancelling out earlier strikes from Paul Hartley and Edgaras Jankauskas only for Saulius Mikoliunas to claim a winner for Hearts.

By that point, of course, Hibs had been reduced to ten men, Shiels having been sent off after firing home the penalty he had earned as Nerijus Barasa was adjudged to have impeded his run as he picked up a terrific crossfield ball from Whittaker which had left the Hearts right-back stranded.

Whittaker, however, insisted he saw nothing of the madness which followed with Shiels sent off after being accused of throwing a punch at Gordon, an allegation he strenuously denies, insisting he was merely trying to retrieve the ball from the back of the net as Hibs, with momentum having swung firmly in their favour, went looking for further goals.

He said: "I'd seen Dean running in behind the Hearts defence and played the ball in towards him. He took it with a great touch, cut across their player and was impeded.

"Dean was definitely clipped, it was a penalty.

"I was much further down the pitch when Dean took it and when I saw the ball go into the net I turned my back and started to go back into position. I didn't see what had happened but, according to the boys, there was a collision and Dean had put his hands up to protect himself."

Losing the Northern Ireland midfielder was an obvious handicap to Hibs but, claimed Whittaker, you'd hardly have noticed they were a man short as they mounted a ferocious second fightback in an attempt to cancel out Mikoliunas' goal.

And it was in that spell a surging run from Scotland star Scott Brown spreadeagled the Hearts defence before he laid the ball off to Killen who, having spotted Whittaker's run, knocked it into his path.

Whittaker said: "When I saw the ball going up through Killen I made my run and he played me in. I took the ball out of my feet, went for power and I have to admit I thought I had scored.

"Even when I saw it hit the inside of the post I thought it was going in off the other one and I couldn't believe it came out. We are talking fractions of an inch here but those are the breaks and it just didn't come off for us.

"I don't think at that point you'd have thought we were the team playing a man short, it was Hearts who were doing the majority of the chasing and, who knows, if we hadn't lost Dean, an attacking player, when we did then we might have gone on and won the game.

"As it was the boys were gutted. We put in a good shift and we felt we deserved at least something out of the game, particularly for the way we played in the second half."

Whittaker admitted Hibs hadn't hit the heights of which they were capable in the opening 45 minutes, going behind early to Hartley's eighth derby goal although Abdessalam Benjelloun had an even earlier chance while Killen guided the ball beyond Gordon's far post instead of equalising.

He said: "The manager and Tommy Craig told us to keep passing the ball about. We changed our formation slightly and it worked for us."

Hibs, however, had a further obstacle to negotiate as yet another derby blunder from goalkeeper Zibi Malkowski, pictured below, gifted Jankauskas his side's second goal, the Pole spilling Hartley's free-kick leaving the Hearts striker an easy tap-in.

But Whittaker refused to point the finger of blame at Malkowski, saying: "Zibi knows he made a mistake and put his hands up to it.

"However, we are a team, we are in it together. We all make mistakes which cost goals and you are the first to know if you are to blame.

"It did leave us with a mountain to climb but I thought the boys showed tremendous character to get ourselves back into the game.

"The gaffer and Tommy keep telling us to play football because we know we have the players who can take responsibility to pass the ball around the pitch."

Despite the disappointment of losing the latest derby, Whittaker insisted there was still a belief among Collins' squad that second place in the SPL table is not beyond them with home games against Dunfermline and Aberdeen in the space of four days to come before the hectic Festive programme comes to an end.

He said: "We'll be keeping our heads up, we've produced some really good performances and there are still plenty of games to be played. Beyond Celtic, it looks as if all the other teams are liable to drop points to each other so, if we can go on a good run, then I am sure we can be up there."

Much, though, will depend on Collins' squad keeping free of injury and suspension.

The absence of skipper Kevin Thomson, Steven Fletcher, Merouane Zemmama and Ivan Sproule, left the bench at Tynecastle looking "thin" containing, as it did, four 19-year-olds, Andy McNeil, Kevin McCann, Jamie McCluskey and Ross Campbell along with 18-year-old Lewis Stevenson. But, while a lack of experience may count against the quintet, Whittaker insisted there was no question mark over their ability. He said: "We had a few failed fitness tests on the morning of the derby.

"But I think having these guys on the bench shows a bit of strength beyond the first-team squad because these boys wouldn't have been there if the gaffer did not think they were capable."

Taken from the Scotsman