Hibernian 2-0 Hearts: Neil Lennon - 'If that means natural order, I'll take it'

Hibernian boss Neil Lennon was happy Hearts counterpart Craig Levein's comments "came back to bite him" after his side's 2-0 Edinburgh derby victory.

Levein was accused by Lennon of being disrespectful after he claimed "natural order" had been restored following Hearts' Scottish Cup win in January.

That ended Hibs' nine-match unbeaten derby run, but goals from Scott Allan and Jamie Maclaren put paid to Hearts.

"These things come back to bite you," Lennon told BBC Scotland.

"If the natural order means being 12 points ahead with a game in hand, I'll take that all the time."

As well as moving well clear of their city rivals, Hibs are now 11 points ahead of fifth-placed Kilmarnock and within one of third-placed Aberdeen, who travel to Partick Thistle on Saturday.

"We didn't pay much attention to it," Lennon said of Levein's comments. "Craig said it was a bit tongue in cheek, maybe I got a bit emotional after the first game, but I'm not now. I'm very, very happy.

"It was an outstanding performance and an outstanding derby. There was a lot of quality and intensity, and a great atmosphere.

"I thought we were magnificent. We had to be patient, but you can see the psychology and mentality are growing.

"Hearts have improved, but we have improved as well. I thought at the end there was a gulf between the teams. I think the league table shows there is a gulf.

"When you're in the ascendancy you need to score and we scored a wonder goal [from Scott Allan].

"After that we really had the bit between the teeth. If [Jamie] Maclaren had scored the one against the crossbar, we could have been talking about goal of the season, but he scores a great second.

"John McGinn was unplayable tonight but Hearts made us play well. Credit it to them and credit to our team as well.

"We're looking up the table now. We're a point behind Aberdeen, which is pretty good going in our first season back [in the Premiership]."

Hearts manager Craig Levein was asked if he regretted making his 'natural order' comments after his side failed to register a single shot on target during Friday's game.

But he refused to give an answer as he instead lamented the defending at both goals.

He said: "Hibs played how I expected them to play and I expected us to do a little bit better on the ball. I thought we defended pretty well apart from those two situations (the goals).

"I didn't think there was an awful lot of difference. The goals mainly. The frustration is both goals are from a throw-in. They're avoidable.

"The game-plan was to try and find the spare man in midfield which we did really well. The problem was after that, the passes that we made, poor decision-making. But their effort was unquestionable.

"The whole thing is frustration because a lot of the things we did were good but we didn't get anything from the match."