Hearts 0-0 Hibernian: Neil Lennon 'incandescent' over disallowed Shaw goal

"Incandescent" Hibernian boss Neil Lennon lambasted the officials who incorrectly denied striker Oli Shaw an Edinburgh derby goal.

Shaw's seventh-minute strike landed over the line via the Hearts crossbar and bounced clear in Wednesday's goalless Tynecastle encounter.

Television replays showed the ball was several inches over the line.

"We should have come away from here with three points - it's clearly a goal," Lennon told BBC Scotland.

"We can all see it where we're sitting, and the linesman, who gave every offside in the first half, didn't see the most important call and that's poor - that's really poor.

"[Referee] Steven McLean had a chat with me afterwards because I was incandescent with rage. The way the ball comes down, it's got to be a goal. It doesn't bounce straight down, it spins back out. Everyone can see it's a goal."

'It makes a mockery of the Scottish game'

Lennon fears Scottish football will suffer when "huge" decisions such as the Shaw incident are not called correctly.

"It's another huge call. It's getting embarrassing, and I think we've got good officials in this country, but it just makes a mockery of the game sometimes here," Lennon asserted.

Teenager Shaw, wearing number 32, wheeled away celebrating before realising his "goal" had not been awarded

"Goals change games, especially in derbies. You get the first goal in a derby, 70-80% of the time you're going to go on and win it.

"We should have three points instead of one - that might cost us as the season goes on."

'It's never a penalty'

Hibs began the stronger team on the uneven and treacherous Tynecastle turf, but aside from Shaw's disallowed effort, failed to test Hearts goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin.

The hosts grew into the game after the break, Kyle Lafferty squandering a huge opportunity in the 50th minute, with Martin Boyle and Paul Hanlon coming close at the other end.

In stoppage time, a Hearts free-kick struck Lewis Stevenson's right arm, with the home players and fans screaming for a penalty.

"It's never a penalty," Lennon said. "He's so close to [the ball].

Lennon insists referee Steven McLean was correct not to award a penalty against Lewis Stevenson

"They can complain all they want, but we have scored a legitimate, perfectly good goal and for some reason it's not counted. So, the gods are against us tonight.

"It's a gluepot of a pitch, it's impossible to play football - we saw what happened to Celtic when they tried.

"We came here to be hard to beat. I don't think my goalkeeper had a save to make, defensively we were superb. There was a lot of talk about what was going to happen to us coming into the game but we were by far the better team.

"You keep hearing we're going to get bullied - we do get kicked a lot, but they get up, get on with it, they're brave.

"Many a time we would have come here and been beaten, but these boys have got a real good mentality when it comes to these games and we saw the best of it tonight on a very difficult surface."

'Kyle's missed a fantastic chance'

Although they have not won a derby since August 2014, Hearts are now unbeaten in eight matches, keeping five successive clean sheets.

Hearts manager Craig Levein was pleased to see his side acquit themselves with passion and vigour against their city rivals.

"It wasn't one for the purists," Levein said. "I thought Hibs edged the first half and I believe the chance they had went over the line - we maybe get a wee break.

Kyle Lafferty scuffed his left-foot effort wide of goal from close range

"In the second half I thought we were the better side and Kyle's missed an absolutely fantastic chance inside the six-yard box, which normally he would put away.

"I thought there were two situations where the ball appeared to hit players' arms inside the [Hibs] box. What I couldn't tell from where I was standing was whether their arms were by their sides.

"And in one way I'm kind of pleased that we've managed to keep our eight-game unbeaten run going, and we've had five clean sheets in a row, which we haven't done for seven or eight years."