Hibernian’s season continues to go from strength to strength as they defeated rivals Heart of Midlothian in the Edinburgh Derby this weekend.
At the start of the day Hibs, the home team in this installment, had climbed to fourth in the Scottish Premiership after a fine run of form since December. While Hearts’ form has shown signs of improvement, their progress is nothing compared to the side from Leith, who find themselves midtable.
Hibs made a fast start too – within ten minutes, an energetic run from Martin Boyle saw him latch on to a hopeful ball forward, and he managed to poke the ball home to open the scoring.
Derbies are rarely straightforward however, and just a couple of minutes later some sloppy Hibs defending allowed Jorge Grant to drive the ball home emphatically from the edge of the box.
Things looked to have gotten even better for the visitors when Elton Kabangu slid the ball into the bottom corner, but was instantly called back for offside and as such the first half ended all square.
Things looked as though they might have ended that way as the second-half wore on, but with a quarter of an hour to go, the hosts struck in devastating fashion.
A cross from the left was half cleared, but the ball bobbled out to the onrushing Jack Iredale, who made himself a derby day hero by lashing a stunning volley into the far corner from just outside the box.
Hibs closed the game out to delight the Easter Road crowd and collect all three points. With Aberdeen only managing to scrape their way to a draw at home to Dundee United, Hibs now move into third in the table with just the Old Firm clubs ahead of them, something few could have predicted given their dismal start to the campaign.
“Easter Road – West Stand” by Daniel from United Kingdom is licensed under CC BY 2.0.