Steven Naismith judges Hearts stint a success as he praises fight following Edinburgh derby dust up with Hibs

The TV broadcasters should hang their heads in shame at failing to stick this on the box. Heck, this Battle of Tynecastle should have been shown on pay-per-view on the boxing channels or the big screen at the Showcase.

We knew we had a fight for fourth. We didn’t know these two would take it so literally. This was 106 minutes of eye-watering drama – and then a massive barney at the end to top it off. You know you are dealing with a mad afternoon when there’s a 30 man Royal Rumble, punches being lobbed and even a flying hot water bottle being thrown like a grenade. It’s just a shame there wasn’t a wider audience to revel in the nonsense. Their loss.

Hearts hung on for a point and to fourth spot in the end. Hibs lost out and then lost the plot. The Jambos had to do so with 10 men after Alex Cochrane’s first half VAR triggered red card which helped Hibs ace Kevin Nisbet cancel out Yutaro Uda’s sweet opener.

Hibs hurled the kitchen sink at their rivals in a bid to leapfrog them on the table but a lack of a cutting edge and some heroics from keeper Zander Clark secured top dog status in the capital. The rammy at the end – sparked by boss Lee Johnson's shove on Naismith – only cranked up the drama another notch.

It was a wild afternoon but another piece of evidence Naismith can put forward to the Gorgie board in his case for landing the manager’s gig on a permanent basis. He can point to the fighting spirit his side showed out there – during and after the game.

“It wasn’t that enjoyable,” Naismith joked. “It was longest game ever!”

But he was thrilled with the dig in his group. Naismith said: “The fight the boys have got is unbelievable, the understanding they’ve got of the game when we go to ten men, I think it was similar