So, on the eve of Edinburgh’s biggest football occasion, who better to sum up the mood of a city that is about to uproot tomorrow, lock, stock and barrel to Hampden Park? More so, if the man in the driver’s seat just happens to be someone who has played for both Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian in the Scottish Cup final.

Ralph Callachan will have a wistful look around the national stadium when he turns up for the semi-final. It bears little resemblance to the ground he played at 30 years ago, when more than 85,000 crammed into Hampden to watch Rangers defeat Hearts 3-1. Callachan was back in 1979 with Hibernian, once again to face Rangers, and yet again his meagre reward was a losers’ medal.

He is the only player to have that unique distinction. Callachan is also one of the few to find the net in both colours in the Edinburgh derby. He, along with 50,000 of the capital’s citizens, will head to the south side of Glasgow, the only true piece of neutral turf for the mother of all derbies. When Hearts defeated Hibernian 3-1 in the 1986 Scottish Cup final, there were just 16,034 at Logie Green in Edinburgh. The scene tomorrow of the massed ranks of green and maroon at Hampden ought to take the breath away.

“The build-up to to any derby is really good, especially when you live in Edinburgh,” Callachan reflected yesterday, after finishing his taxi shift out at the city’s airport. “You get a real feel for it as the game gets closer but this one seems to have touched the whole of Scotland, never mind Edinburgh.

“Everyone in the city was hoping that it would be the final and when they were drawn together in the semi-final, it was a bit disappointing but now a lot of fans of Hibernian and Hearts admit that it’s probably better this way. They could not bear to lose the final to the other lot, not on the last day of the season with the whole summer to endure.

“The gloating rights mean a lot in Edinburgh. Usually now there are four derbies a season, whereas when I was a kid there were just two. The derby was the big occasion for all the fans but this one is the biggest we have ever seen.”

While Edinburgh does not have the partisan divide that blights Glasgow, this is no watered-down football rivalry. Hearts and Hibernian are followed with a passion, however there are a few, like Callachan, who crossed the divide as players.

The greatest of them all, Gordon Smith, was part of Hibernian’s Famous Five who won three titles between 1948 and 1952 before helping Hearts to become champions in 1960.

Of the present day collection, Paul Hartley and Michael Stewart will find that their every touch of the ball tomorrow is to a backdrop of jeers mixed with cheers.

Both have swapped sides. Hartley played for Hibernian with little success between 1997 and 2000, before finding his way to Tynecastle in 2003 from St Johnstone. Stewart was the boyhood Hearts fan who moved there from Manchester United yet could not get a game, so he signed for Hibernian instead last summer.

Both are singled out by their former supporters for treatment. Callachan can empathise. Even though he played for Newcastle United in between his spells at Tynecastle and Easter Road, he can still remember the fuss his defection caused when he joined Hibernian in August 1978.

“Michael will be more concerned about impressing the Hibs fans than about any stick he gets from the Hearts punters,” Callachan, who is now 50, said. “I know when I first joined Hibs, the fans were suspicious about me as a former Hearts player and it took a bit of time to win their approval.

“At least this time, unlike, say, going to Tynecastle, the supporters are split 50-50. Paul Hartley gets a bit of abuse from Hibernian fans but he has proved at Hearts how good a player he is. It never clicked for him at Easter Road but it has worked out for him. Actually, you get stick from both sets of fans when you’ve played for each — you are in a no-win situation.”

Of course, there is really no such thing as a neutral Edinburgh fan, especially not this weekend. It was not until he stopped playing that Callachan’s Hibernian cover was blown. The composed ballplayer was one of Hearts’ bright young hopes when he made his debut in 1975 as a teenager, but was sold to St James Park just eight months after appearing in the 1976 Scottish Cup final. A brief stay on Tyneside saw him return to Edinburgh, but this time to Easter Road, where he spent eight years.

“I have to admit to being a Hibernian fan,” he said. “It never made any difference to me when I was playing. No one complained about how I played for Hearts and my ‘secret’ never came out while I was playing. However, I was brought up in Lochend, just around the corner from Easter Road, and my father was a Hibernian fan. He was not too keen on me joining Hearts when I was a schoolboy but that’s just because he thought football was risky and wanted me to serve an apprenticeship as an electrician — but I went against him.”

Callachan’s memories of that final against Rangers in 1976 are of a missed opportunity. “We never gave ourselves a chance,” he recalls. “We were 1-0 down after a minute when Derek Johnstone scored and then they scored again in the 44th minute. With Hibernian in 1979, it took three games. We had a great chance in the first match to win it and didn’t take it. That finished 0-0, so did the first replay and the second one saw Rangers win 3-2 when we had a last-minute penalty claim turned down.

“This season, the Scottish Cup has been a real catalogue of upsets. When the Old Firm went out, and Hibernian and Hearts both stayed in, both sets of fans began to believe they could win the trophy. That’s why so much rests on this semi-final. Each feels that they could never have a better chance of winning the cup if they were facing Dundee or Gretna in the final.

“The last year has been one of the best periods to be a football fan in Edinburgh. Both teams are playing great football. Hibernian have had to go a different route, because of their financial limitations, and put a lot of faith in youth but I love watching Tony Mowbray’s side. Hearts have also been great this season. They have more experienced players than Hibs but I love players like Hartley. They were unstoppable at the start of the season.”

Taken from timesonline.co.uk