Form guide gives Hibs derby edge

Published Date: 02 April 2011
By STUART BATHGATE
Hibernian
v
Hearts
Clydesdale Bank Premier League

HAVING won five and drawn one of their last six games, Hibernian are enjoying a fine run of form which could not be in starker contrast to where they were at the turn of the year. Hearts' best form, by contrast, is now a couple of months in the past, and their hopes of splitting the Old Firm merely a memory.

With third place all but secure for some time, Jim Jefferies' team appear to have lacked motivation for some recent games. Hibs, on the other hand, still harbour hopes of breaking into the top six and, if results go their way this weekend, they will be within two points of that target. So, although there are still 26 points between the two clubs, form nonetheless favours Hibs as we look ahead to tomorrow's third and possibly final Edinburgh derby of the season at Easter Road. And, notwithstanding the fact that there are individuals on both sides for whom this fixture is the most important in the game whether it be a cup final or a bounce match, this one matters more to the home team.

Then there is the strength of the squads, relative to what they were like when the teams last met, and to their optimal state. In both those respects, too, Hibs come out ahead. Since running Hearts close on New Year's Day only to lose to a late Kevin Kyle goal, Hibs have augmented their squad considerably, thanks to some astute and economical moves in the transfer market by Colin Calderwood. In Victor Palsson, Matt Thornhill and Martin Scott they have a midfield trio of greater physicality than they have enjoyed for years while, up front, Akpo Sodje has added experience and confidence as well as bulk. Calderwood has those four and almost the rest of his squad all available, the only absentees being goalkeeper Graham Stack and winger Danny Galbraith.

How Jefferies would like to be in Calderwood's position. Instead, he will be without two key midfielders in the suspended Eggert Jonsson and Adrian Mrowiec, may lose international full-back Lee Wallace to injury and will, at best, be able to use Kyle off the bench for the last 15 minutes or so.

It is hard to see how Jefferies can compensate for those deficiencies, particularly in the middle of the park but, from Hearts' point of view, it is vital that he finds a way to do so. Otherwise, Scott and Thornhill, picadors to Palsson's matador, will soften up the visitors and allow their Icelandic team-mate to move in for the kill.

In such circumstances, a Hibs victory is on the cards. But yesterday Calderwood, displaying his habitual caution, insisted that a home win would be "unexpected" - and hinted that if they were to achieve it, his team might have to draw first blood.

"If we got the first goal on Sunday it would be an important one," the manager said. "It would light up our stadium and, with us being the ones who haven't won for a long time, we'd be the unexpected victors. So we have got to hope things edge our way. But even if they score it we want to show a different proposition to November."

Having lost the last four derbies and drawn the two before that, Hibs are currently undergoing their worst run in the fixture for almost a decade. However, as Calderwood said moments later during the same press briefing, that "long time" only stretches back to the middle of 2009 - hardly enough to inflict psychological trauma on his players.

"It's not something we think is a problem," he said. "It has not been over that long a period. There looks to be a little bit of freshness about us and an eagerness. With this game and the excitement it brings, I don't think it would hinder us even if we had the same 11 who had played the previous five games. It would be a motivational thing rather than a hindrance."

Calderwood, of course, is still looking for his first derby win, and if New Year's Day produced a respectable defeat, the same could not be said of the last match at Easter Road, when a poor Hibs team lost 2-0. To any outsider, the difference in the squad between then and now is apparent, but the manager, eager to prevent his players from getting carried away by the modest progress they have made, prefers to downplay the transformation he has wrought.

"I was disappointed that day," he said of his derby debut. "But the way I felt before the game is the way I feel now - I think we have a chance of winning the game. I felt the same that day, but we disappointed, and from the moment they scored the first goal we never looked as if we would get back into it. I think that is something we spoke about at the time and we don't want that situation again. We want to have a better reaction and be able to force some sort of pressure, which we didn't do that day.

"We had one or two moments of slight pressure, but we have got to have more quality than the natural excitement of the fans of someone chasing a ball into a corner. We have got to produce more quality and, although we competed at Tynecastle, did we ever have a real threat? There was only one moment. So we have to improve.

"This is a test, an examination and another marker on the card: have we improved? Can we get closer to Hearts?"

This could be the last chance for some Hibs players, most significantly Derek Riordan, to achieve a win over their old rivals before they leave the club in the summer. Riordan has said he wants to stay at Easter Road, and his manager dismissed a suggestion that a Turkish club are interested in the striker as speculation, saying club and player had agreed to talk at the end of the season.

By that time, however, there may be nothing more to do for Hibs than offer Riordan a deal they know has already been bettered elsewhere.

Whether Riordan stays or goes, Calderwood will have to decide soon if there is a future at the club for Ricardo Vaz Te, the Portuguese striker who has been signed until the end of the season. By his own admission at only 80 per cent of full fitness, Vaz Te, like his Hearts counterpart Kyle, will have to kick his heels on the bench until the closing stages of the game.

If the match is still all square by then, both men will be given the chance to tip the balance of the contest in their team's favour. But, unless Jefferies evokes a level of performance from his players that they have not attained for a couple of months, Hibs should be out of sight by then.

Taken from the Scotsman