HIBERNIAN head coach Neil Lennon claimed failure to use video footage was making a “mockery” of football after Oli Shaw was denied an Edinburgh derby winner despite his shot bouncing over the line.
Referee Steven McLean and his assistant, Sean Carr, failed to spot Shaw’s seventh-minute strike bounce behind the line and out after the teenager hit the crossbar from Martin Boyle’s cutback.
The incident proved the key moment in a goalless Ladbrokes Premiership encounter at Tynecastle, which was shown live on television.
“It’s well over the line,” Lennon said. “It’s a goal, everyone can see it, and you can tell by the way the ball comes out at the angle it does.
“We were by far the better team for long periods on a very, very difficult pitch. I pay tribute to my players, they were outstanding in difficult circumstances, but I should be sitting here talking about a great win.”
Lennon added: “I know we’re on about video refereeing. Sky are here, if the fourth official goes and looks at a monitor he can give Steven a shout and say: ‘By the way, that’s a goal’.
“He (McLean) said he couldn’t get a good view of it and the linesman didn’t see it. The linesman saw every offside in the first half. He didn’t get the most important one.
“These could cost us at the end of the season. We should be celebrating a big derby win.
“All the odds were against us, we were hearing all about what would happen to us here. My players, particularly first half, were outstanding, and if we had just picked the right pass at the right time we would have been in. It’s a hard one to take.
“This is a huge game. It’s live on TV and it’s making a mockery of the game sometimes.”
⚽️ Hearts 0-0 Hibernian
Are you sure it wasn't a goal, linesman?
➡️ https://t.co/lua6k40F8T pic.twitter.com/WBehgOOaWw
— BBC Sportsound (@BBCSportsound) December 28, 2017
Hearts manager Craig Levein admitted they had been handed a reprieve but he bemoaned Kyle Lafferty’s miss in a game of few clear chances.
“We’ve had a lot of things go against us recently so we’ll take that and then we missed a sitter to win it in the second half,” Levein said.
“It was one where both teams set out to be competitive and fight and that filled their head full of that stuff, and forgot about playing football. We were better in the second half and still competed well, but we can do better than that.”
Hibs are now unbeaten in nine derbies but the draw extended Hearts’ current unbeaten run.
Levein joked: “Eight in a row. Another 62 and we get Celtic’s record.”
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