MAYHEM AS HEARTS WIN EURO RACE

Managers’ bust-up spills over at end of bruising final-day derby shootout

HERE’S hoping Steven Naismith gets the manager’s job at Hearts over the summer. If only to ensure we get the same aggro, mayhem, flying hot-water bottles and all-round madness within the Edinburgh derby as we had at Tynecastle yesterday.

Goodness me, where do you even begin? Well, at the end, really, and the no-holds-barred free-for-all that unfolded after a post-match handshake between Naismith and his opposite number Lee Johnson degenerated into football’s equivalent of a WWE Royal Rumble.

Naismith’s reaction at time-up proved Hearts were more than happy with this draw, eked out with ten men after Alex Cochrane’s firsthalf red card and enough to secure fourth place and Europe. He turned to the main stand, raised his two fists in celebration and walked across to the Hibs’ technical area.

That’s when it all went pearshaped. Naismith didn’t make eye contact with Johnson as they shook hands. As you might expect with a couple of blokes who appear unable to stand the sight of each other.

However, a pushing match — maybe even involving a wee dunt along the way — developed between the two and all hell broke loose.

There had already been a bit of an argument late in the game when Johnson picked up a yellow card after Hearts coach Gordon Forrest had seen the ball knocked out of his hand when he was refusing to give it back. A hot-water bottle even landed on the pitch. Thrown, allegedly, from behind the Hearts dugout.

After Naismith (right) and the Hibs boss had locked horns, though, it was bedlam. Hearts goalkeeping coach Paul Gallacher, who seemed such a mild-mannered boy as a player, was in folks’ faces.

Injured Hibs defender CJ EganRiley ended up on the pitch, and slap-bang in the middle of the maelstrom. Ross Stewart, the Tynecastle reserve keeper, knocked his black baseball cap off at one point. And that sparked handbags.

Stewart swung his elbow into Johnson’s face as the Hibs boss was trying to talk to referee Don Robertson. That led unused sub Rocky Bushiri to start looking more like Rocky Balboa, charging around like a bull in a china shop and trying — and failing — to get his yellow bib over his head to show he meant business.

It became impossible to keep up with everything going on. Hearts official Clare Cowan was in the middle of a squad of Hibs players, telling them to stop in the way an irritated mother might have had enough of her kids playing up.

Craig Gordon was even spotted putting someone in a headlock. Gallacher was at it again with

Joe Newell and Riley as Hibs made their way off the pitch.

In the end, Gallacher, Johnson, Bushiri and Stewart were all sent off in the tunnel by referee Robertson.

That was before Stewart then came back onto the pitch for a bizarre guard of honour staged for him and teammates Michael Smith and Gary Mackay-Steven as they prepare to leave the club under freedom of contract. Suffice to say, his contribution to the post-match melee was probably the high point of his Hearts career.

There was a game of football to precede all this as well. Yutaro Oda scored an opener for Hearts before Kevin Nisbet equalised. But that was just a side salad, in truth.

Hibs should have won and might well have were it not for a couple of decent saves from home keeper Zander Clark and a post denying Will Fish late on. Hearts were happy just to get out of it with the result they needed after battening down the hatches and hanging on in the wake of Cochrane’s expulsion.

It started so well for Hearts with centre-back James Hill’s long throw proving a most useful weapon in the armoury once again. He hurled the ball in from the right, James Jeggo looked less than convincing in heading clear to the edge of the box and Oda did the rest, sending a low shot beyond visiting keeper David Marshall.

Hibs had been slow to get out of the blocks. However, Hearts proved incapable of keeping them in a chokehold and conceded in complicated circumstances.

Nisbet had moved onto a long ball surrounded by maroon jerseys, checked back on himself and saw the ball spin into the path of the onrushing Chris Cadden.

Just as the one-time Motherwell man was prepared to shoot, though, Alex Cochrane appeared and sent him crashing.

Referee Robertson initially pointed to the penalty spot and flashed a yellow card at the Hearts full-back, taking into account the ‘double jeopardy’ law which states a player attempting to play the ball should only be cautioned if he concedes a spot-kick.

However, VAR Greg Aitken got involved and invited Robertson to take a second look at the incident on the pitchside monitor. It turns out it was actually a free-kick on the edge of the area and that meant

Cochrane was off for denying a goalscoring opportunity.

To make matters worse for the home side, Nisbet then stepped up and bent his low dead-ball effort into Clark’s right corner.

From that point, Hibs ran the show. A first-time effort from Paul Hanlon had to be tipped over the bar by Clark and, right at the end of the first 45, Newell saw a closerange shot turned over for a corner before Lewis Miller missed a sitter from a Newell corner.

Nisbet was next to come close just after the restart, with Johnson having thrown on Harry McKirdy and Ewan Henderson for James Jeggo and Miller at the interval in the search for a winner.

Cadden, later taken off on a stretcher after landing awkwardly, progressed up the right and put a lovely cross into the centre. Nisbet rose well to make contact, but his glancing header slid just the wrong side of the far post. Clark then had to produce another good save with 15 minutes to play from a Hanlon header.

McKirdy then headed wide from a Hanlon cross before a real outbreak of bagatelle in the Hearts goalmouth with seven minutes left. Newell fired in a corner from the left, Fish got his head to it amid a ruck of players and it appeared to hit an opponent before coming off the post and being cleared.

Like much of what followed, it was hard to know exactly what went on. But it was all a bit frantic. And a bit bonkers. And the kind of stuff, as much as we may not like to admit it, that keeps you coming back for more.

HEARTS (4-2-3-1): Clark; Atkinson, Hill, Rowles, Cochrane; Devlin, Haring (Kiomourtzoglou 18); Oda (Forrest 76), Shankland, McKay (Sibbick 31); Ginnelly (Halliday 90). Subs (not used): Stewart, Smith, Grant, Tait, Kuol. Booked: Hill. Sent off: Cochrane. HIBERNIAN (4-1-4-1): Marshall; Miller (Henderson 46 (Devlin 90)), Fish, Hanlon, Stevenson (Cabraja 56); Jeggo (McKirdy 46); Cadden (Delferriere 68), DoyleHayes (Campbell 52), Newell, Youan; Nisbet.

Subs (not used): Johnson, Hoppe, Bushiri. Booked: Stevenson, Cadden, Doyle-Hayes.

Referee: Don Robertson. Attendance: 18,971.