Paul Heckingbottom was left furious with fourth official Gavin Duncan who he accused of swearing at him on the touchline.
Heckingbottom was upset that referee Craig Thomson played an advantage for Hibs after a foul in the first half, then didn’t pull play back when Daryl Horgan lost possession.
He then became involved in an heated exchange with Duncan, and said afterwards that he had sworn at him.
“It didn't help getting sworn at by the fourth official, I'd have knocked his teeth out if it was anywhere else,” he replied when asked in his post match BBC interview what had caused him to become so animated. “So that was one of the reasons.”
The Hibs boss won’t be making a complaint about the incident, adding: “It didn't bother me, you just asked me why I was animated. That was it.”
Of the game, Heckingbottom said his team can have no excuses after not taking their chances, which allowed Hearts to force a change of mentality and nearly won it at the end,
“We don’t make excuses because we didn’t take our chances,” he said. “We have had games where we have been really clinical and games made it difficult for ourselves missing chances and this was one of them.
“Second half was really good and if you watch the goal go in there was a mentality shift which is what we don’t want, we want to keep going, being positive.
Hibs player ratings from 1-1 draw with Hearts
"We didn’t and we allowed them to get a bit of momentum. We had opportunities on break when final ball wasn’t great. We’ve played better than that before but also played a lot worse and won.
Hibs are now four points behind Kilmarnock in fourth, but Heckingbottom was frustrated that the gap wasn’t cut more significantly.
He added: “It could have been closer. That’s what’s disappointing, regardless of who we were playing and it being a derby, it could have been two points and in our hands. That’s what we were playing for.”
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