The Edinburgh derby has a reputation, somewhat just, of being a fixture that rarely delivers a scintillating game of football. Where moments of brilliance and entertainment are interspersed by large periods of nothingness or, at times, brutality against the ball.

Normally, it is a chaotic and hectic. Bodies fly around the pitch as if someone has hit fast forward seeking a ball that has become sentient and doing its damndest to not be in the possession of anyone longer than you can count to two.

Sunday's fare at Easter Road was not a normal derby.

Heart of Midlothian dominated possession for long periods and instead of the game being played in fast forward it appeared to be adjusted to slow down mode. 

From a Hearts perspective the game provoked "a mixture of emotions", a phrase used by head coach Neil Critchley. 

The team came into the match off the back of a European week. They would ultimately fall behind before earning a point late on. Not only did it wrap up what was a productive week on the pitch it also kept them off the bottom of the Premiership table at the expense of their city rivals.

On the flip side, even with the tiredness which was likely more mental than physical fatigue, they came up against a Hibs side who were there for the taking.

The home side, who actually started the game as bookmakers' favourites, didn't take on the role of protagonists which is normally the case for the hosts in a derby, especially the opening stages. They would largely sit off Hearts, only engaging when the ball went into one of the full-backs higher up the pitch or the central midfielders. Dwight Gayle would close down the centre-backs but not much energy was expended in doing so.

It wasn't uncommon to see most or all of Hibs' players in their own half when one of the Hearts centre-backs had the ball. The example below is 13 minutes in.

It resulted in periods of play which fans had grown frustrated with seeing where the game was played in front of the opposition and the centre-backs seeing too much off the ball.

It is natural that the centre-backs will have a lot of passes and touches in the modern game. But in Hearts' case it was too much.

The graphic below demonstrates the teams in possession during the first half. We can see Hearts are higher up the pitch collectively. The bigger the circle the more passes the player has made while the thickness of the line between two players indicates the greater number of passes.

The top five first-half passing combinations (across both teams):

Frankie Kent to Kye Rowles - 19

Kye Rowles to Frankie Kent - 18

Kye Rowles to James Penrice - 12 

Kye Rowles to Malachi Boateng - 10

Daniel Oyegoke to Frankie Kent - 10

Hibs' highest passing combination was eight. To highlight their own issues, two of their top four combinations involved goalkeeper Josef Bursik. It neatly sums up the game, especially those first 45 minutes.

The frustration for Hearts is that Hibs were fragile and lacking in confidence. They struggled to get their forward players on the ball and running at the visiting defence. Hearts played a part in that with the way they controlled possession and condensed the game ensuring that when Hibs did get possession there were little space and a Hearts player would be on hand to close down. 

A great example of this was Cammy Devlin early on when Jordan Obita tries to find Junior Hoilett who was playing in a central midfield attacking role. 

The Australian is aggressive and nips in.

This writer firmly believes that if Hearts had got ahead in the first half, especially those first 20-25 minutes, it could have been a very fruitful and comfortable day for the men from Gorgie in Leith. A team already low in confidence would have struggled and then the apathy or anger of the home crowd comes into play.

Yet, Hearts didn't do enough with their territory and possession as we can see from the first-half shot map. A sign that there is still much work to be done in such situations.

"We got into some really dangerous, threatening positions and failed," Critchley said. "Our quality and decision-making let us down. We didn't keep the ball in the final third for long enough and I felt that was the message at half-time, make a few more passes in the final third."

He added: "You've got to make sure that the possession you do get, you turn that into dangerous possession and I don't think we did quite enough with the possession that we did. We didn't threaten the goal enough. First half, that was due to our quality and our decision-making around the box. We were threatening and you're going, go on, go on and we failed."

It was an accurate assessment.

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Positive play

There were encouraging signs and it should be no surprise that James Penrice was involved. He has been excellent since coming in from Livingston. David Martindale told Hearts Standard in the summer that the club had "won a watch" with his capture on a free contract. He was spot on.

The left-back combined effectively with Blair Spittal tucking in and Malachi Boateng shuffling across or dropping into a deep position beside Kye Rowles to open up space for Penrice.

As early as the fourth minute Penrice wins a battle with Lewis Miller and is on his skates. There just wasn't quite enough on the pass from Spittal but the intention was good.

Hearts were trying at times to replicate what they did effectively against St Mirren and work the ball from one side to the other where there was space. Spittal's positioning saw him drag Martin Boyle infield. 

Penrice sends Spittal free but when he sends the cross in he has only one option to hit.

It felt that every time Hearts went down their left something positive would happen.

Penrice plays a one two with Spittal and it ends with Lewis Miller bringing the left-back down in a dangerous free-kick position.

If there was one complaint, Hearts didn't work the ball out left quick enough at times. Rowles on occasion appeared reluctant to play that pass with Martin Boyle in the vicinity. After all, he is quick, something the centre-back will know from their time as Australia team mates. Below we can see Boateng instructing him to play to Penrice. He instead knocks a short pass to Boateng before going to Penrice who has dropped deeper.

While Spittal maybe didn't hit the heights of his past three outings, he was a great source of finding space and playing forward. He was behind the team's two best chances. In the first half, when he got into a half-space, turned and set in motion Kenneth Vargas' first-half chance. 

In the second half it was his incisive pass which led to Lawrence Shankland's effort which fizzed wide just after Hibs' opener.

The frustration

Hearts were largely frustrating or frustrated in the final third. There were two elements, especially in the first half, where the team had good chances to exert some real pressure but, to refer back to Critchley's assessment, took the wrong decision or didn't keep the ball in the final third.

Two instances of decision making could be found when there was space to attack.

The below image is probably the only time Penrice didn't drive forward. Look at the numbers in Hearts' favour.

He ended up turning back.

The more frustrating moment involved Devlin. Look at the space to run into. Not only that, he has two great options to bounce a pass off or for a team mate to try to turn.

It ends up going sideways.

The sequence that followed that pass was Boateng > Devlin > Rowles > Kent > Boateng > Devlin > Kent > Boteng > Rowles > Penrice > Spittal > Boateng > Kent > Oyegoke > Kent > Rowles > Kent > Shankland who was then tackled by two Hibs players in a position no further forward than when Devlin had the ball orginally.

Then there was not keeping the ball in the final third which the above also falls into. 

Shankland and Vargas were guilty of giving up cheap possession in good areas. The Hearts captain was just too eager to keep the ball moving.

Vargas, who also didn't have his best day, summed up his performance when he got the ball in a great area outside the box from Yan Dhanda. His touch was loose and then a pass into Oyegoke rolled out of play.

Both situations perhaps highlighted some fatigue. Whether it be focus, concentration, tiredness. Not only did both of those forwards start all three games but as well as the fixture calendar there is a new head coach and new ideas to consider.

Still, from the moments he was involved, Hibs goalkeeper Bursik looked nervous. He dropped or didn't collect balls cleanly and also came into areas where he had little chance to get to the ball. However, Hearts couldn't test him enough, finding the target with just two of 11 shots, one of which was James Wilson's fine striker's finish aided by a towering Alan Forrest flick on.

It could have been more if the team were more assertive or more composed in the first half. But in the end, Hearts again battled to the end and displayed a strong character to earn what, in the end, was a deserved point.

It may not have been the perfect end to a strong week but it has been a productive and encouraging start to Critchley's reign with more games on the way.