Shaun Maloney ‘won’t accept’ standard set by Hibernian in second half at Hearts

Shaun Maloney lamented an “unacceptable” second-half performance from Hibernian as they missed out on a place in the top six of the cinch Premiership following a 3-1 Edinburgh derby defeat away to Hearts.

The Easter Road side led through an early goal from Drey Wright but the hosts hit back in first-half stoppage time before scoring another two in the first 15 minutes of the second half.

A point would have been enough for Hibs to have stayed in the top six but they did not look like hauling themselves back into the match, much to the annoyance of Maloney.

“What was most disappointing was that the two big moments in the game, just before half-time and straight after, had too big an impact on how we played,” he said of how his team reacted to Hearts’ first two goals.

“We were very good in parts of the first half, but we can’t allow a set-play goal in the second half, after a couple of minutes, to then completely alter how we played and the mentality of the team.

“That’s the biggest disappointment. The performance in the second half, I can’t accept, and I won’t.

“It’s in those biggest moments, when you go 2-1 down at your biggest rivals, can we still go and compete? Today we showed that we didn’t.

“That’s the biggest disappointment, when we come here and play as well as we did for the first 30 minutes. It’s not good enough.”

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson was delighted with the way his team fought back to secure third place and a crack at European football next season.

“It’s really important that with a full house here today we win the game,” he said. “Sometimes it is not about the performance.

“Hibs started the game better. It wasn’t until probably 25-30 minutes we started to settle down and play.

“Once that happened we