De Graaf says Hibees must learn to be ruthless

EDWIN DE GRAAF today admitted that Hibs had played like boys whilst victors Hearts had performed like men at Easter Road.

Hibs are still looking for their first win under new manager Colin Calderwood after goals from David Templeton and Stephen Elliott gave the visitors all three points from the first Edinburgh derby of the season.

Hibs' lack of inspiration in the final third of the pitch was a defining factor and De Graaf conceded they had been outplayed by their closest rivals.

The Dutchman said: "I think that Hearts were more clever than us yesterday, they made the fouls at the right times and for me at times it looked like they played as men and we played as boys.

• Hearts vs Hibs: Edinburgh Derby in pictures

"It was my first derby and I hoped that we would finally have a victory but, again, it was really disappointing.

"We know from each other that we can play good football and that we have a good team but, like every other club who is down there in the league, you have to work really hard for every point.

"But I think that we created nothing, we had one shot on target. When you want to win games, you need to shoot at goal and we didn't do that.

"I thought that we started the game well, after that though, our problem was that we gave the goals away too easy.

"The first one, I think, we had five men behind him yet none of them made a foul on their player so he scored. The second goal, no-one won the header. Then you're two goals behind.

"Now we are in a situation where everything is not so good for us and we have to stick together, work really hard at training and hope that it is going to be okay."

De Graaf revealed that the Hibs players had been silent in the dressing room after the match, apart from manager Calderwood, who encouraged his side to stick together as a unit and work to turn Hibs' fortunes around.

They get a chance on Wednesday against Rangers, but they will travel to Ibrox without captain Derek Riordan who was red-carded yesterday for a lunge at Rudi Skacel shortly before the final whistle.

De Graaf continued: "Derek is a boy of the club and for him it is maybe really emotional to play against Hearts but it is not clever or smart to make that kind of mistake with three minutes to go in a game.

"For him it is really disappointing but sometimes when you have so much frustration in your body that happens.

"He did not say anything in the dressing room, everybody was quiet and just listened to what the gaffer had to say.

"He said that we have to stay together, that we have a good team and that we have to believe in ourselves."

De Graaf conceded that the Edinburgh outfit would be happy to come back along the M8 with a share of the spoils: "Now we play against Rangers and then Motherwell, they are hard games. Rangers away at this moment is a really hard game but maybe we can defend there well and get a point and hope that things will change for the game against Motherwell on Saturday."

Despite their current plight though, De Graaf does not feel the Hibs players or supporters will have to worry about the prospect of relegation come the end of the season:

"We are down there now but I think that as a team we are too good for that. If we are playing against St Mirren or Dundee United or teams like that then I think that we are the better team, but we have given away some goals too easily and, at the beginning of the season, we missed a lot of chances - me also. I had a couple of really big chances but I did not make the goals - that has to change."