Shaun Maloney has vowed to repay the Hibs faithful for sticking with his side as they crashed out of the Scottish Cup.
After falling behind thanks to two brilliant Hearts goals, Chris Cadden fired home to give the Easter Road men a lifeline.
Some Hibs fans were headed for the exits when the Jambos went 2-0 up, but those who stayed will be glad they did as their team took Hearts to the wire.
Former Celtic star Maloney made tactical changes at half-time and had Hearts on the ropes as the second half wore on.
Hibs couldn't quite squeeze in an equaliser but Maloney insists they'll use their fan support as fuel for improvement.
He said: "I've never been to a derby game like this, lost, then had a reception like that from the support. The players appreciated that and the fans appreciated the effort the players put in.
"Over the coming months and years, I need to give them a team which gets applauded off the pitch every match and gives them a winning feeling.
"I hope that today I gave them a team to be proud of. My goal over the next four or five games is to give them that level of performance, fight and desire.
"It's my job to lift the players. We need to use this feeling so that every single game we play, we give what we gave today.
"I thought the performance of my team was excellent. It was as good as it has been in the three or four months since I've been here."
Maloney felt his side lost the physical battle when they squared up to their arch rivals at Tynecastle last week.
But he was impressed at how they stood up to Hearts at Hampden and insists that he'll take the flack for Joe Newell's red card.
Maloney added: "Last weekend there was a physicality and strength to Hearts that we had to match. I asked the players to play on the edge and we had to match what Hearts have.
"I asked Joe to play on an edge, we had to match Hearts. Joe just went over the edge but I'll take that one, I asked him to play that way.
"Even at 2-0 down, I thought we were playing very well. We didn't defend a set play and we didn't defend a counter-attack. That's small things which we've worked on this week.
"I couldn't be more proud of them and what they've given me. Going down to 10 men, I thought we were the more dominant side."
