Jim Jefferies has heaped praise on his Heart of Midlothian outfit after yesterday's 2-2 draw with Hibernian at Easter Road in the Edinburgh derby.
The visiting Hearts overcame a few obstacles, namely the sending off of Marius Zaliukas, to grab a late equaliser through Stephen Elliott to extend their unbeaten run in this fixture to seven matches.
The performance of the Jambos, who were without a host of key players, was not lost on Jefferies who admitted his side were down and out in the early stages.
"We were fantastic, when you consider that Hibs were probably at their best today and we were without quite a few key players," he said.
"The way the opening half hour went, we should have been three goals up and we were by far the better side.
"Hibs got the break because the penalty decision changed the game and they got the lift they were badly needing after being outplayed in that opening half hour."
And as for the Zaliukas red, Jefferies said the penalty for the foul on Akpo Sodje was certainly there, but questioned the severity of the punishment.
"I'm not complaining about the foul because I thought it was a penalty. It's whether it was a sending-off," he added.
"You've got to deem whether the boy is going to get the ball. Seemingly, it bounced and Craig Thomson says he thought it was going into the goalkeeper's hands so I would need to see it again. He feels the goalkeeper was going to get there before Sodje.
"I've got no complaints about the penalty but the sending-off, well, I'd need to see it on the video again."
