EDIN ON THE RIGHT ROAD

HEARTS emerged from a full-blooded, rattling spectacle on Saturday with cause to insist their championship challenge remains intact.

There was, however, much more to the third Edinburgh derby of the season than a 4-1 result in favour of the Tynecastle side.

Okay, this match did crackle and spark, allowing Hearts' fans to stampede into Gorgie and claim it is game on again at the top of the SPL where Celtic continue to look fragile. But for those with no allegiance to either Edinburgh club, or the Old Firm for that matter, Saturday was bloated with an even greater significance.

The derby left us buoyed by belief and alive with hope.

This one match, played at a ridiculously frantic pace at times, left us bristling with fantastic possibilities for our national game when just the day previously our ambitions had been bludgeoned into early submission by the draw for the 2008 European Championship.

The Faroe Islands, Georgia, and Lithuania? Fine, bring them on, but Ukraine, Italy and France? How many more times must we be kicked in the box before FIFA or UEFA will give us a break?

Anyway, in an attempt to shake off the feeling of impending doom which had been scratching a nail down my senses since Friday's bout of ball-fumbling in Montreux, I nosed the car towards Tynecastle. There is nothing quite like a derby atmosphere to drag a person out of reality and into another world but it was even better this time.

This time we weren't hauled along. This time we were sucked into the game by the blistering speed and sheer strength of Hearts'desire.

They were determined to prove to Celtic and Hibs that their claim to the title still has credibility but most of all they were pushed by the need to convince themselves that they could still do it. They did, and spectacularly so.

Hearts are alive and well but forget the result and leave their pummelling of Hibs to the side. Focus for a moment on one gorgeous fact. This Tynecastle treat was packed full of Scottish goodness and Walter Smith, as well as the Tartan Army, can take great encouragement from the efforts of a bundle of young or youngish Scots.

No one is suggesting our national team manager pick up the phone to his French equivalent Raymond Domenech, Italy's Marcello Lippi or Ukraine's Oleg Blokhin and warn them they're in for a right good gubbing when they come here. But after Friday's draw we needed to find comfort, no matter how slight, wherever we could then make the most of it.

And after Saturday's capital show optimism started to pierce the gloom over Scotland like a shaft of sunlight. Yes, there is reason to b elieve we have some players capable of hauling Scotland from the depths of despair.

We're not going to the World Cup finals and that will hurt like hell when the ball starts rolling in Germany this summer but the derby in Gorgie helped rekindle something, even if I'm not quite sure what. Let's just say there was a stirring, a feeling Scotland fans haven't experienced for years.

And no, I'm not talking about any kind of awakening below the belt or under the sporran. This is about spirit and hope for the future and that's why it was a joy to be at Tynecastle just to look on and then become lost in the promise of something good taking shape.

Even if Hibs failed to make a game of it they had a bunch of Scots in their side who could all force Smith to find room for them in his squads, although, of course, they'll have to forget about Saturday and remind themselves they can actually play.

Derek Riordan started sharply but like the rest of Tony Mowbray's players he was in danger of being trampled as Hearts barrelled towards goals and victory. However, he certainly wasn't the worst in the first half and it was a surprise when he was kept indoors after the break, especially when Ivan Sproule had done nothing on the right-hand side where Hearts had been able to barge forward almost at will.

Still, we know Riordan has a chance of making the big time because he can play and the same applies to Scott Brown - although his afternoon was scuppered by a first-half injury - Kevin Thomson, Garry O'Connor and Gary Caldwell.

However, they were a poor second best to Craig Gordon, Robbie Neilson, Andy Webster, Zorro - I keep waiting for Paul Hartley to bring out his rapier with a Hollywood flourish and then carve a 'Z' on the shirts of his opponents - Calum Elliot and Dalkeith's finest Christophe Berra.

Each one of these players helped pick my trampled belief up off the floor and if they all continue to make progress who knows where we might end up.

In a major finals again?

Still, back to Hibs and it was just such a pity for their fans that the same players who have thrilled several times this season were out of sorts. Tthen again maybe they got what they deserved after their ungracious behaviour before kick- off.

The supporters were asked to join in a minute's applause for Wallace Mercer, who died almost two weeks ago, but many of them turned their backs to the pitch where the players had congregated around the centre circle.

Naturally, Hearts' fans and their players applauded but the Hibs players didn't so maybe they, too, got what was coming to them in the game.

It was, of course, one of the Great Waldo's less than terrific ideas back in 1990 to get his hands on Hibs, close them and make one "super" Edinburgh club and he later admitted this was an act of folly. Yet, Hibs' fans couldn't forget or forgive.

All I can say is their refusal to recognise a decent football man showed them to be a mean-spirited lot, although it was also upsetting to see none of Hibs' players joined in the applause. Had they been instructed to refrain?

I'd hate to think so because that would show the people who run this club to be as petty as those fans who turned their backs. Still, maybe Hibs got what they deserved and perhaps Mercer had the last laugh.

Taken from the Daily Record