Honours Even In Edinburgh

Last updated : 27 October 2014 By Ed_ScottishFitba

C:WindowsTempphp9406.tmpHearts manager Robbie Neilson does not subscribe to the belief that his side will go through the Championship season without recording a loss, following the 1-1 draw with Hibs at Easter Road yesterday. Neilson’s team left it late, three minutes into stoppage-time, to rescue a point thanks to a wonder strike from Alim Ozturk to keep their automatic promotion hopes intact. While Hibs had dominated much of the game and looked like winning after Dominique Malonga's first-half goal, Neilson praised his team’s refusal to give up. For the third time this season Hearts scored a vital late goal, having done so against Rangers and Alloa, when they claimed six wins from those games.

Neilson said: "Will we finish the season unbeaten? No. There will be a period where we lose a game. But it's about how we respond to that. We avoided that today but now it's up to someone else to beat us now. That's us now gone to Ibrox and got a last-minute winner, done the same at Alloa and now come here and got a draw with another last-minute goal. I said to the boys at half-time that this is an opportunity to prove the doubters wrong, to prove the people who think the bubble is going to burst wrong. That's the first time we have been behind in the league this season but we showed good spirit to get back into it. We went a goal down, lost a man and our captain Danny Wilson to injury but kept going. Eventually we got Alim's strike. It's credit to him because after training he practises his shots because we ask him to step forward into midfield. It's one of those one where he will hit five and four will go over the bar, with one hitting the target. Today he got his one in 10 that goes in the back of the net."

Neilson said he will have a word with Callum Paterson after his challenge on Malonga resulted in a straight red card late in the game. Neilson said: "I haven't seen Callum's tackle back yet but from what I'm hearing it was a bad one. We all make mistakes. His team-mates pulled him out a hole but we will talk to him this week and try to advise him to watch his tackling in future."

The result means Hibs remain 14 points behind their rivals, but manager Alan Stubbs insists there is much to play for. He took many positives from the performance, which saw his team stretch their unbeaten run to six games. The Hibs manager said: "It's obviously disappointing to lose it so late in the game but I thought we were outstanding. We did so many good things in the game. I'm proud of the players and proud of the performance. It wasn't bad for a 'poor team'. I would have liked another goal but you don't always get what you want in football. That's the same with the result. The lad will hit another 999 shots and none of them will be on target. Where does this leave our promotion hopes? Ask me again in February or March. Nothing was won today. There were a few celebrations at the end. I noticed that."