Romanov's army on the march

THERE'S nothing quite like a derby match to get the juices flowing - and Sunday's visit of Hibs to Tynecastle has certainly caught the imagination.

Judging by the unprecedented demand for tickets for this weekend's clash, any reservations which Hearts fans may have had on seeing Vladimir Romanov ride to the club's rescue with his millions strapped into his saddle bags appear to have eased.

With George Burley now at the helm and a convincing victory over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on the opening day of the season already in the bag, the feel-good factor is definitely back in Gorgie.

With the final 4000 tickets having been snapped up on Monday at the start of a public sale, the 'sold out' signs around Tynecastle tell their own story. The Capital is well and truly in the grip of derby fever.

So often in the headlines for the wrong reasons in the past, the focus has hardly been off Hearts recently as Burley rolled out a succession of new signings.

And it is these new boys who will hold the key to the Jambos grabbing the bragging rights at this early stage of the campaign.

Rudi Skacel, Edgaras Jankauskas, Roman Bednar, Michal Pospisil and Julien Brellier have all arrived at the club over the past fortnight. With the exception of the latter two, who didn't feature at Rugby Park, the new men made an instant impression. Should Pospisil and Brellier recover from injury in time, then all five could be involved at some stage on Sunday. It would represent something of a gamble by Burley to field so many foreigners who haven't experienced the unique raw passion of an Edinburgh derby. But I get the feeling it's a prospect which doesn't unduly perturb the former Derby and Ipswich boss.

The new men clicked better than expected in Ayrshire to get the Burley era off to a flying start, with Skacel and Bednar scoring on their debuts and Jankauskas tormenting the home defence.

With the backing of a sell-out Tynecastle, the front men will be champing at the bit to put the Hibees to the sword. Much has been made of the club's foreign signing policy but let's not forget the Killie game saw Hearts start with seven Scots, five of whom were full internationalists.

The spine of the team, from Craig Gordon in goal through Steven Pressley and Andy Webster at the centre of defence to Paul Hartley in the engine room, remains truly tartan and Sunday will see Burley rely on these guys to help the newcomers cope with the cauldron of the derby in his first competitive home match.

The last time the teams met at Tynecastle, Tony Mowbray's side administered a 2-1 defeat to deliver a fatal blow to their rivals' lingering hopes of European qualification and that will not have been forgotten by Sunday's hosts.

We have had some remarkable matches between the sides in recent seasons.

Hibs' stunning 6-2 triumph at Easter Road in October 2000 will be fondly remembered by all down in Leith. Equally, the Gorgie faithful dined out for long enough on the Mark de Vries-inspired 5-1 mauling of the Hibees three years ago.

And then there was the small matter of the tumultuous 4-4 draw at Tynecastle which took the breath away in January 2003, Graham Weir smashing two injury-time goals to snatch an unlikely point for the hosts.

If Sunday's encounter serves up half as much excitement as these matches, it will be well worth seeing.

Over to you, lads!

Taken from the Scotsman