Lawrence Shankland fires himself into Hearts folklore with stunner before seeing red in derby rout - 3 talking points
Lawrence Shankland became the first Hearts player since strike legend John Robertson to hit 20 goals in a season to help give Jambos boss Robbie Neilson his first EVER win at Easter Road and fire the men in maroon into the Scottish Cup last 16 with a 3-0 victory over Hibs.
Shankland - who was then sent off for a second yellow card in injury time - scored a stunner after Josh Ginnelly netted the opener for the visitors in Leith and Toby Sibbick completed the rout injury time. A jubilant Neilson, who watched from the stand as he served a touchline ban, to heap more misery on Lee Johnson and Hibs, who haven't won a derby since December 2019.
Hearts arrived unbeaten in their last eight games and without a derby loss since December 2019 but Neilson had incredibly never won at Easter Road as player or boss. The home side handed James Jeggo a baptism of fire with a quickfire debut following just one training session with his new team-mates after signing from Belgian side Eupen.
The Leith side started the brighter of the two as Ryan Porteous - in possibly his last appearance for the club - sent a long ball forward and Elie Youan latched onto it with Michael Smith alert to clear the danger. But Zander Clark spilled the resulting corner in a nervy start from the Jambos.
Hibs went even closer moments later as Chris Cadden sent Aiden McGeady racing away down the right and his cross found Josh Campbell who flicked the ball goal wards but it came back off the upright. But from that dominant start, Johnson’s men found themselves behind as Hearts scored against the run of play. Robert Snodgrass floated in a free kick which was headed out and into the path of Ginnelly and his sweet strike found its way into the back of the net to send the
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