Hibs boss John Collins insists they deserved a penalty during their 1-1 draw with derby rivals Hearts.

The second Edinburgh derby of the season ended level after Christophe Berra's first-half own-goal was cancelled out by a close-range strike from Tynecastle striker Christian Nade.

However, Collins felt his side were denied a certain penalty by referee Charlie Richmond when Lewis Stevenson was bundled over by Berra going for a loose ball during the first half.

He said: "It was a definite penalty, no doubt about that. Some you get and some you don't but we're not getting much just now when it comes to 50-50 decisions. That's football. That certainly wasn't 50-50 and if we had gone in 2-0 up instead of 1-0 it would have made a difference, but it's all ifs and buts.

"I don't know what the referee thought other than it wasn't a penalty. The referee makes the decisions, that's his job and he can't get them all right all of the time. It's a tough job."

Hibs held the upper hand in the first half of a thrilling encounter that swung one way and then the other.

And, although upset to have only taken a point from the match, Collins insisted he was content with his players' display. He added: "The first-half performance was absolutely magnificent, you would not have believed it was a derby the way we controlled and passed the ball with great composure. All credit to the boys. I'm not disappointed with the performance, I'm absolutely delighted with the performance, but I'm disappointed with the result. The players' attitude was fantastic and their discipline was superb."

Hearts assistant head coach Stevie Frail admitted he was concerned when he saw Stevenson bundled over by Berra.

And, although he too felt his side could have taken all three points, he was satisfied with the draw.

He said: "Overall, I think a draw was a fair result, although we created clearer chances in the second half. After the way the first half went it was important we got back into it and, although I would have liked to have won the game by getting our chances put away, a draw was probably a fair result. The gameplan clearly didn't work in the first half.

"To allow them to have it in an area is something we base our game on at the moment. We did it against Rangers and it was successful and it was also successful on Wednesday night against Celtic.

"But I don't think it worked for us in the first half and we managed to put it right at half-time and got an early goal in the second half.

"We got a player, Audrius Ksanavicius, booked on Wednesday night for simulation but you could see there was contact. I was crying out for a penalty on Wednesday night and they might have had a shout for a penalty with Christophe."