The new year Edinburgh derby between Hearts and Hibernian on Saturday provided the usual fight and desire from both sides but neither could be separated as the game ended 1-1.

Hibs dominated the first half and took the lead through Jason Cummings but a long range strike from Jamie Walker equalised for the Jambos and left the Tynecastle side 13 points clear of Rangers and Hibernian six points behind the Ibrox side.

Neil Alexander was called into action within seconds of the game kicking off as Alim Ozturk’s poor pass gave Cummings an opening on goal, but his shot from distance was saved by the Hearts keeper.

Hearts continued to be second best in the first half, with Hibernian taking the game to Robbie Neilson’s side, Scott Allan proving to be the main man again as he had done in Hibs’s 4-0 win over Rangers the week before.

Allan, who was proving to be a handful for Hearts, unsurprisingly set up the opening goal of the game. The 23-year-old whipped in a cross from the right and fell perfectly for Cummings to fire past Alexander.

It should have been 2-0 to Hibernian soon after a Lewis Stevenson cross found the striker at the back post, but he failed to hit the target and the effort bounced wide.

Despite being second best for much of the first half, Hearts got back into the game through Walker.

Adam Eckersley laid the ball off to the midfielder who moved infield from the left before rifling a right-footed shot into the top corner from 20 yards out.

Into the second half and both sides had a number of penalty claims waved away by referee Steven McLean.

Despite a number of late chances for both sides, neither side could find a winner.

Walker insisted after the match that Hearts are taking nothing for granted in the title race despite stretching their unbeaten run in the Scottish Championship to 19 games.

He said: “No-one at this club will start celebrating anything until it is mathematically impossible for us to be caught in the league.

“There is still an awful lot to play for in the remaining weeks of the season.

“No-one here is thinking that things are done and dusted.

“If Rangers were to beat us in a couple of weeks at Ibrox, it would make things tighter and the boys will just keep focused.”