HEARTS SMILING AGAIN

Hearts head coach Craig Levein admits his side's 5-1 derby win against Hibernian has ended almost two years of suffering.
The Tynecastle side finally managed to turn the tables on their Edinburgh rivals - having been subjected to a 6-2 thrashing at Easter Road in October 2000.

Levein claims Hearts have been "hurting ever since" - but yesterday they demolished Hibs in spectacular style in the Scottish Premier League.

"We suffered a lot after the 6-2 defeat against Hibs at Easter Road and have been hurting ever since. But this has helped to ease that," said Levein.

"At 2-1, I thought Hibs had a couple of great chances. They put the pressure on us a bit and, had things been a bit different, I wouldn't be standing here now talking about a 5-1 win.

"But I thought we could have had another four or five goals. We had opportunities ourselves, and their goalkeeper made some brilliant saves.

"I couldn't be more pleased - it was a great start for us."

New summer signing Mark de Vries was making his home debut - as well as his first ever Edinburgh derby appearance - and he stole the show by netting four goals.

Andy Kirk opened the scoring for Hearts, and Ian Murray managed to pull a goal back for Hibs.

But the day belonged to de Vries, who struggled through the 90 minutes with cramp in both legs to hand his new side one of their best derby results in years.

Levein believes such an impressive display will help the towering striker become even more dangerous.

He said: "Mark has shown since he arrived that he's the kind of player who thrives on confidence - and he'll take plenty of confidence from this game."

Hibs boss Bobby Williamson has warned his side they must learn quickly from the mistakes made at Tynecastle - or suffer more heavy defeats.

He said: "The first two goals were really bad goals for us to lose - the first one was just punted up the park, and for the second one we gave their guy too much time on the ball.

"At times we seemed to be all over the place and we let everyone down.

"I just hope that we can learn from this game - because if we don't then we'll struggle."

LEVEIN: FANS MUST NOT GET CARRIED AWAY
By Lisa Gray, PA Sport
Hearts head coach Craig Levein has warned the club's supporters not to raise their expectations too high following the 5-1 win against city rivals Hibernian.

Star of the show was striker Mark de Vries - who joined the club in the summer following a spell at Dutch side FC Dordrecht.

He scored four goals in the derby game to ensure a home debut he will never forget.

The result establishes Hearts as the top team in Edinburgh - at least until the next meeting between the two sides.

But Levein has urged the Hearts fans not to be become too carried away by the result, insisting it was a one-off.

He said: "The players realise that this was a one-off and that things fell for us today - the problem I have is convincing the supporters of that.

"But it's a dream come true and no-one ever thought this could have been possible, and Mark is absolutely delighted.

"We could have scored another three or four goals. We had opportunities but their goalkeeper had some great saves.

"I couldn't be more pleased - it's a great start for us."

Andy Kirk set the ball rolling for Hearts when he opened the scoring after 18 minutes before de Vries claimed his first goal of the day five minutes before the break.

Hibs managed to pull a goal back through Ian Murray - who was deputising as captain after John O'Neil picked up an injury early in the game.

But Levein opted to keep de Vries on the park, despite the player suffering cramp in both calves, and he went on to score another three goals in the second half.

Despite such an emphatic performance from the towering hitman, Levein reckons the player still has a long way to go before his is fully fit.

He added: "Mark's injury is fine but I think it was his fitness which was a problem today.

"He had a great game but I'm sure that he would be the first to say that he had very good service from his team-mates.

"All he has done today is make everyone aware of what kind of player he is but it's going to get harder from now on.

"But I couldn't afford to take him off earlier in the game - even if he stayed on the park and just stood still in the area I knew that he would cause problems.

"He went on to score two more goals after that so maybe he was just kidding me on that he was struggling!"

Hibs boss Bobby Williamson admitted he hoped to take something from the game when Murray hauled the Easter Road side back into the game - before de Vries snatched two late goals in injury time to kill off the game completely.

Williamson said: "I don't know what I think after that - it's hard to put thoughts into words. It was a terrible defeat.

"At 2-1 I felt that we could get back into the game and, even at 3-1 I thought we still had a chance so I made a couple of changes.

"I am very disappointed and this is a hard one for everyone to swallow."

Taken from sportinglife.com