Luvvies get a culture shock as Capital pair put on a show

THE idea of a Festival Cup to be fought over by Hibs and Hearts may have received a rather less-than-lukewarm welcome from the fans of both clubs.

And the knowledge both teams would be meeting again over the more serious matter of three Premierleague points just two weeks later did little to raise the temperature.

But when the curtain came down on this dress rehearsal, the 10,000 plus who had witnessed the preceding 90 minutes were left calling for an encore.

For while this may only have been a pre-season friendly, albeit for a piece of silverware to which little importance was attached, the players of both sides proved that even if they were asked to play at 3am on a Tuesday in the Meadows a derby is, after all, different. Any luvvies from the Festival who happened upon the latest Fringe venue on Saturday afternoon would undoubtedly have suffered something of a culture shock as the players went at it hammer and tongs from first minute to last.

Referee Tom Brown’s patience was tried to the limit as crunching tackles made those watching wince, the official using copious supplies of commonsense to keep a lid on things although the players must realise that they won’t enjoy such leniency from the man in black, whoever he might be, in a couple of weeks’ time.

But even the magnanimous Brown was forced to reach for his top pocket when it all boiled over as Hibs’ Tam McManus and Hearts’ Austin McCann put aside their friendship to square up to each other in a touchline fracas which had team-mates from both sides and the officials throwing themselves in to separate the warring pair. It may not have been the prettiest of sights but it was just what the fans wanted to see, the commitment, passion and desire which is the trademark of derbies in which the quality of football so often comes second.

Victory is the name of the game, a win must be achieved by any means how and once again Hearts underlined their recent grip on such clashes, a 17th-minute header from Andy Webster settling the outcome and leaving Hibs boss Bobby Williamson still seeking his first derby day success after five attempts.

However, despite that record and what many would see as Hearts having gained a psychological edge with another derby looming, Tynecastle boss Craig Levein warned against taking such a view.

He said: "I don’t go in for all that sort of stuff. The minute you go out onto the pitch in a derby you have to start from scratch and do all the right things.

"But I don’t want to think about the next Hibs game, we have a vitally important home game against Aberdeen and I want to focus all our attention on winning that game."

And on this occasion Hearts certainly did all the right things, demonstrating, perhaps, just how Levein has been able to build upon the squad which finished third last season while his counterpart Bobby Williamson is only just beginning to dismantle and reshape a squad which had underachieved for two years.

Without the likes of Phil Stamp, Jean-Louis Valois, Stephen Simmons, Alan Maybury, Gary Wales, Kevin McKenna and Paul Hartley, Hearts deserved their win over a Hibs squad which, the injured Colin Murdock apart, was probably as strong as Williamson could have named.

Levein has built a rock-hard spine within his team with the Scotland pairing of Steven Pressley and Andy Webster simply strolling through this match, aided by the support of the midfield duo of the tireless Neil McFarlane and Scott Severin with even striker Mark De Vries showing his defensive qualities at set-pieces.

As a former defender himself, it was a pleasing sight for Levein who said: "I thought we defended well as a team. We restricted Hibs to very few chances."

Hearts did make it hard for Hibs to open the way to goal, their superb organisation closing down the opposition and leaving them with few passes on when in possession.

And if Pressley and Webster looked assured and confident in everything they did, Hibs’ defence at times looked less so with Williamson admitting it was poor defending which led to the only goal of the game.

Robert Sloan’s corner drifted across the face of the Hibs goal and out to Steven Boyack on the opposite flank. He wasted no time in returning it and there was Webster to nod home. Simple as that.

Williamson said: "From our point of view it was bad defending for the second ball into the box."

He will, no doubt, be looking for Northern Ireland internationalist Murdock to bring some organisation in that area.

As both Levein and Williamson conceded, goal-scoring opportunities were at a premium, Hibs’ best chance falling late on when a miscued header arrived at the feet of Easter Road skipper Ian Murray.

But with time and space on his side, the Scotland midfield star succeeded only in pulling his left-foot shot across goal and well wide of the target.

It was, though, that scuffle between McManus and McCann which was the main talking point after the game.

Levein said: "It was difficult for the referee but I thought he handled the match exceptionally well and you must compliment him for that.

"He gave free-kicks for both sides when he thought they were free-kicks, he had a word with people when they were late.

"The easy thing to do would have been to show two or three yellow cards early on and then we could have ended up with seven or eight of them. But both teams got out of the game without injuries and with only one booking apiece.

"It was a tussle, it’s a man’s game, it’s physical but it was no massacre of any sort. It was competitive, a derby match with both teams committed to try to win.

"That’s the way I saw it and I have no gripes over anything that happened in the game."

And Williamson, too, thought too much was made of the incident. He said: "The referee has a job to do and if he deemed it a sending-off offence he should have done it. But he did not. He was a lot closer than me, all I saw was the two rolling about. I didn’t seen any black eyes. However, they cannot do that, you can’t condone it no matter what type of game it is."

The Hibs manager, naturally, was disappointed to see his side lose once more to their arch-rivals. He said: "It does not matter what kind of game it is with Hearts, you want to win it.

"Whether it is the World Cup final, an egg cup or what we were playing for in this game, you want to beat Hearts. So we are disappointed, they all hurt."

And while happy to win, Levein wasn’t for rubbing salt into wounds, saying: "I think both Bobby and I will be happy our players were committed, that augurs well for the season.

"It was competitive, you would agree with that and we are happy to get through it with no injuries.

Hibs: Hyldgaard (Andersson 46), Orman, Doumbe, Smith, Zambernardi, McLaren, Wiss (Brebner 63), Glass (McManus 63), Murray, Brown (O’Connor 46), Dobbie (Riordan 46). Subs not used: Thomson, Whittaker.

Hearts: Moilanen (Gordon 46), Kisnorbo (Neilson 46), Pressley, Webster, McCann, Boyack (Janczyk 86), McFarlane, Severin, Sloan (Hamill 46), De Vries, Kirk (Wyness 72). Subs not used: Weir, McLeod.

Referee: Tom Brown

Taken from the Scotsman