Derby messes with your head

Moira Gordon
IT'S THE derby way. Whether it's mind torture or hair decoration, once a landmark scoreline messes with your head, there's scant way of escaping it. The 4-0 Scottish Cup semi-final roasting in 2006 is seared into the minds of Hibs fans who see this afternoon's match as an opportunity to partially-exorcise those demons, but it was the reference to the 7-0 humping of Hearts in 1973, which Ian Murray etched into his hairdo in 2003, that Hearts fans won't forgive or forget.
In part one of the latest capital showdown, the league meeting at Tynecastle last Saturday, the Hibs defender tangled with Christophe Berra. Both were booked but it was the former who was lambasted by the home crowd. Suffice to say, some Hearts fans don't like him very much.

"I haven't seen it again and at the time I didn't think it was a booking for either of us but I don't think the Hearts fans liked it! But they usually give me abuse anyway," says Murray with a wry smirk. "I heard them singing. I had a smile at that. it doesn't bother me."

Winding up and being wound up, he concedes, is normal derby day procedure. He knows better than most.

It is six years since he had "1973" shaved into his hair and dyed green. In the intervening time he has moved to Rangers and played with Norwich City, and in his absence from the Edinburgh football scene Hearts have won the Scottish Cup and Hibs took the League Cup, but as emotions build in the stands this afternoon, the gesture might as well have been yesterday.

"Thinking back I can't believe no-one stopped me. The manager (Bobby Williamson] didn't say anything, the other players didn't stop me. The only other people who saw it before the game were my family."

And even his mum didn't raise a protest? Aware of the volatile derby arena her son was about to run into, did she not feel the urge to protect him from himself? Maybe she didn't realise what long memories or unforgiving tendencies the average football fan possess.

"No, no-one tried to stop me, not even my mum," he laughs, shaking his head. "Although, in fairness to my mum, I'm not sure what she thought about it, but she knew me and knew there would have been no point saying anything. I wouldn't have listened.

"I wouldn't do it now. It's not a case of been there done that, it's about being a bit older and a bit wiser but I don't regret it, what's the point, it's in the past."

In his mind, not in others'. Even this week the debate raged among Hearts fans. How long would it take for them to tire of bombarding him with abuse, they mused. The general consensus was that hell may freeze over first.

That kind of disdain is unlikely to disabuse Murray of his passion for the capital clashes. With enough mischief in him to thrive amid such hostility, he says it makes him even more determined, although motivation is not something players such as the 27-year-old require on derby days. Steeped in the history of the capital head-to-head, some would argue the homegrown players are actually too motivated.

"I do still get more wound up for these games but I'm not as bad as I used to be. I now find it quite funny, even a wee bit sad when you turn round to see who is giving you all the abuse and it's some guy who is feeling brave because he has his mates around him, he's 10 rows back and we're separated by a barrier, police and stewards and he knows if I react too much I'm the one that will be in trouble.

"That's when you realise he's not worth it. I think I have a better perspective now."

Distance – emotional and geographical – as well as the normal maturing process has offered him that greater objectivity.

The last time Hibs met Hearts in Scottish Cup competition, Murray watched on television. He was with Rangers at the time, a team the Easter Road side had defeated emphatically two rounds earlier.

That day he had league duties to concern himself with but still managed to catch the first half. He's not too bothered that he missed the rest as Hearts ran out 4-0 winners, Paul Hartley completed his hat-trick and two Hibs players were sent off. If it has eaten away at Hibs fans since, he has had other matters on his mind. His own career. Beating illness and suffering down at Norwich. The return to Easter Road last year was welcomed and at the time he cited the promised reintroduction to the derby fray as one of the most appealing factors. As an east coast lad, with vested emotions, he said he rated the games more highly than the more renowned Old Firm tussles. After the first couple, though, he was worried that some of the lustre had been lost.

The first, a 1-0 defeat, was a poor spectacle and a disappointing result as far as he was concerned. The next – a 1-1 draw earlier this season – was another anti-climax. Given more of a man-marking role, he says he felt the game passed him by.

It was only last weekend that the whole affair gave him the same buzz he had experienced in his first Hibs spell. The game finished 0-0 but he still enjoyed it and he says that may be because he had become caught up in the pre-match hullabaloo, stirred by the disparaging comments and gloomy predictions.

"I know we had a poor result against Kilmarnock (losing 4-2] the week before but I still thought the negativity was over the top. We have had bad results already this season but we usually bounce back well from them so I couldn't understand why we were being written off. Some were even saying it would be three or four nil, even although Hearts haven't been scoring many goals. It doesn't normally bother me what people say but reading all that did annoy a lot of us in the dressing room and gave us something to prove."

This time around there is a sense of calm he confesses was absent a week earlier but rubbishes the notion that raising themselves for back-to-back derbies is tough.

"If it had been two league games, that would have been strange, and if it had been two games at Easter Road or two games at Tynecastle then it might have lost some of it's appeal, but last week was the league at their ground, this week it's the cup at home so it's all fresh and we know that this time a draw won't be enough, eventually this tie needs a winner. The last time the teams met in the cup, Hearts went on to win it.

"On the morning of the draw I actually said that I wanted Hearts at Easter Road and I couldn't believe that's what came out so we need to win it now."

Because if they don't, he won't be allowed to forget it. Hearts fans have long memories. He already knows that.

Taken from the Scotsman