THE New Year brought familiar old frustrations for Hearts as their need for a potent striker again betrayed itself.
Few goalless matches will have been as compelling as this Edinburgh derby, but that offers little consolation to a home team which commanded the second half without breaching Hibs' resistance.
An abundance of concerted pressure saw Hearts strike t
he crossbar twice and post once. Hibs' chances could be described as clearer overall but they arrived only sporadically. That said, the visitors would have secured three priceless points but for a critical save by Janos Balogh 14 minutes from time. Steven Fletcher evaded two opponents to go one-on-one with the Hungarian, who blocked the final shot with his legs.
Hearts enjoyed a majority of possession, particularly after the interval, and statistically were the dominant side excepting the most telling indicator – goals. Toothless became a popular description of Tynecastle forwards during 2008, and 2009 is unlikely to be any different unless Csaba Laszlo can persuade Vladimir Romanov to begin wheeling and dealing. With a trip to Motherwell and Sunday's Scottish Cup engagement at Easter Road looming, time is of the essence.
Despite significant patience already having been extended to Christian Nade, the Frenchman continues to test tolerance levels of both supporters and his manager. If his first-half header from a Robbie Neilson throw was intelligent and inventive, two second-half blooters into the Roseburn Stand were both wasteful and negligent. Nade now has one goal in 20 appearances this season, Hearts just one in their last four games.
"You can shoot maybe 20 times on the post and crossbar but you must be more focused on the target. I am not saying anything new from last year," said Laszlo. "If you don't have the killer instinct you can create 20 million chances but if you don't score you leave danger.
"This game could have been 5-4. We had some periods in the middle of the second half when we pushed and if you score in this moment you kill the opponents. We also had some situations where we had some luck. I don't think it is a big secret that we need to score more goals. I gave the board my plan and I hope we will be active.
"We try to get some players and I hope that before I tell you about players leaving we can bring a good striker, a player who can score goals."
A potential solution to Laszlo's conundrum could lie in Gary Glen, the prodigious teenager who recently resumed first-team status. He replaced the concussed Jason Thomson after 34 minutes, a change which allowed Hearts to gain control of midfield. Glen showed his prowess in the free role just behind Nade, which had until then been Michael Stewart's domain. Stewart reverted to his more suited central midfield role and Christos Karipidis returned to centre-back as Eggert Jonsson took over from Thomson at left-back.
The alterations gave the hosts better balance. Stewart is an infinitely more useful player when coming from a deep position and the Hibs midfield, with debutant Jonatan Johansson on the right, were forced to play second fiddle just as they looked like taking a hold of proceedings themselves with Sol Bamba their most impressive player.
From one of Stewart's incisive passes, Glen spun to unleash a 25-yard drive which clipped Yves Ma-Kalambay's crossbar on 63 minutes.
"Gary came into the team for the second time this season and played good football," said Laszlo. "I think it is a little bit unlucky that we had an injury in the game. Jason at left-back had this problem with the head after the collision and he had to come off. If we talk about the young team we must look at the league position and if, after the split, we are in the top six then we can talk about the next step. It is not just about playing good football it is about successful football."
There was an unsavoury start to the afternoon as a portion of visiting fans chose shamefully to boo during a minute's silence for the late former Hearts captain George Miller. Equally distasteful were derogatory chants about Dean Shiels when the Irishman entered the fray as a second-half substitute.
The play itself passed off rather tamely, though, exemplified by the fact that referee Calum Murray – who had an excellent match – did not produce a yellow card until the 70th minute. It emerged afterwards that Karipidis had played through the pain barrier following a knock in the opening minutes. "I got a bad kick and wanted to come off but knew I couldn't because (Marius] Zaliukas was missing," said the Greek. "I will miss the next game against Motherwell and will see what happens after that. We are disappointed not to have won as we had a lot of chances. We hit the bar twice but if you don't score goals you don't win. We have to be pleased with the way we played because Hibs had only one chance in the second half.
"We should not be down about the result as a draw isn't so bad. It was a typical derby game at home and we had some good chances. We did not take them but on another day we will."
Laszlo concurred with Karipidis' view. "We did not get three points but I think it is very important to know we had a lot of problems with Zaliukas out, Lee Wallace out," he said. "I must make a compliment for my team, especially the young guys Eggert Jonsson, Jason Thomson and Gary Glen. This was a good football game. Always we talk about derbies but although we lost two points I thought it was a game where both teams showed good football.
"We must also talk about the opponents who were always dangerous on the counter-attack situation. They had opportunities from corners and free-kick situations. I am not frustrated but I must make a compliment to the supporters. We won the game against Hamilton 1-0 and they were unsatisfied but today with 0-0 against Hibs they supported the team. They were focused.
"If you win the derby everyone is happy but I don't think this is a sad day for us. At the moment the most important thing is to talk about the game at Motherwell and then we have the next game at Easter Road."
He will also be preoccupied with thoughts on how to reinforce his forward line before next week's cup confrontation.
