PERHAPS you had to wait until the gulls circled around the empty stadium to finally have the opportunity to assess the wisdom of hosting a football match between two Edinburgh teams in another city. The show had gone on regardless and ended with Hibs perhaps thankful that a bigger arena such as Murrayfield had not housed what was, for them, a comprehensive defeat. This was an experience they did not wish to share with more prying eyes than was necessary. Hearts, meanwhile, next month will gladly return to a stadium in which they had initially resented staging yesterday's ultimately one-sided affair.

It was meant to be historic, but became only academic in the end. The worries about congestion proved redundant. One half of Hampden stayed behind even without being requested to by the police.
7 Wonders

The fact the Hearts fans simply lingered as long as full-time was enough to create a satisfactory window of opportunity for the Hibs fans, some of whom elected to leave this hotly anticipated event after less than an hour, to return home in relative peace. Memories of the manner of their side's defeat will abuse them for some time yet, however.

The national stadium could not have proved more inhospitable to followers of the Easter Road side had it been decorated in maroon, and planted in the middle of Gorgie.

Hearts made a home for themselves here yesterday, and now Romanov wishes to further reveal a talent that is presently in vogue by relocating Scotland's football capital in Edinburgh. Perhaps a BBC series awaits a man who could give Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud a run for his money.

While Romanov, in a rather barmy post-match statement, later reneged on his initial conviction that Murrayfield was the perfect stage for this tie, there cannot be many among the Hibs throng glad that Hampden was the venue nominated as they endured that most awful of experiences - the dejected journey home.

Their fate was to return to the comfort of their own hearth with a heart full of ache. Every mile brought a fresh agony as they contemplated the series of calamities which made this biggest derby in a hundred years such a let-down, for them at least.

In Romanov's increasingly lively eyes the trip to Hampden had played a part in Hearts' victory. The journey apparently gave the fans an hour to contemplate the task ahead, and helped form solidarity between supporter and player. If this is something he truly believes is the result of an hour of unnecessary travel, perhaps they should forget about turning Tynecastle round by 90 degrees and simply just move the stadium an hour outside Edinburgh. And true solidarity with the team could only have come had Vladimir invited every Hearts supporter to spend the night prior to the match in a sumptuous hotel, as his players did.

The proles were left to drift over to Glasgow on the morning of the game while wiping the sleep from their eyes. Some selected a better standard of transport, with more limousines seen prowling the streets around Hampden than is surely normal on a Sunday morning in Mount Florida.

For the Hibs fans, this proved a valid expense. The blacked-out windows helped them endure the return home, offering welcome anonymity. Better, perhaps, to be mistaken for a brash celebrity than a Hibs supporter on such a day. It was, as ever, the hope that killed them. And the loss of so many key players. Perhaps it was trepidation felt which kept a few thousand Hibs fans away from the stadium. A great clump of empty seats in the east stand at Hampden was a rather glaring admission that not all the Easter Road club's tickets had been sold.

The Hearts fans latched on to this immediately, taunting their rivals mercilessly. "You couldn't sell all your tickets!" they boomed from what was their own tightly-packed corner. They were already revelling in this experience, which was strange given the Gorgie club's initially substantial reservations about the venue. Hibs had been more emphatic - Hampden it had to be. But they were soon left to rue this stance as the club felt the impact as another wave of misfortune, something which has accompanied their recent visits to this stadium, washed over them.

In 2004 Hibs simply didn't turn up for a CIS Insurance Cup final against Livingston that many thought would end their then 13-year wait for a trophy, while last season a better performance became unhinged when Dundee United scored two late goals to secure a place in the Scottish Cup final.

Hibs might now start a petition to tear Hampden down, never mind play any more matches here. How can a venue which has proved so unsympathetic to the Hibee nation ever be regarded as neutral?

Unlike those defeats to Livingston and United, yesterday's was perhaps unsurprising. Hearts were always the favourites to win, and thus extend this Hibs trophy famine.

Many Hibs fans opted not to linger in their own worst nightmare, having upped from their seats after the second of Paul Hartley's three goals. The time was shortly before half past one, a month of build-up having unravelled in the time it takes to say "for god's sake cover your near post".

Perhaps it was never meant to be. In contrast to the ebbs and flows of Hearts' own season, Hibs have slipped into a worrying downward spiral as they eye the end of a season that was once flushed with possibilities. Yet for the Hearts supporters, fuelled by exhilaration, the miles back home skipped by. This had been their day, their story.

From the off they had looked the more purposeful team, and played the most flowing football. This was especially admirable given the fact the pitch had been left rutted by the previous day's semi-final between Dundee and Gretna. Strangely, Bobby Mann's pesky stud-marks had not been mentioned as a negative factor amid all the babble about the positives and negatives of Hampden Park. On more than one occasion a bobbling ball led to a chance to score being suddenly sabotaged.

Both sets of fans had been successfully segregated prior to the game, even to the extent that Hibs and Hearts supporters were given their own motorways. But when they finally got to within sight of one another, when they finally reached the destination that had been so heatedly debated, there was nothing the authorities could do to prevent a glorious rammy of colour and noise. The supporters had finally been allowed to see the enemy.

The atmosphere built impressively, considering it is not a common experience to be belting out songs at the top of one's lungs at shortly after 11am, not in these secular times at least.

Perhaps the fact the attendance was nearly 10,000 below capacity was the final word in the Murrayfield/Hampden debate. Surely the rugby venue would have seen more than 43,000 seats occupied. Those who stayed away had refused the opportunity to witness a piece of history unfold - the first Edinburgh derby to have been played outside the capital city, and, perhaps sadly for those hoping for a clash to fit the occasion, one that will be remembered for being rather desperately one-sided.

Taken from the Scotsman