Hearts have a derby talisman who makes them the envy of their city rivals - Billy Brown

Published on Sunday 1 January 2012 01:54

LUCK is what you have left over after you give 100 per cent. In opposing dug-outs for the first time, good friends Billy Brown and Gary Locke will each have given their all to ensure that the players involved in tomorrow’s Edinburgh derby are as prepared as possible for the battle.

But with one the Hibs assistant manager and the other on the Hearts coaching staff, something has to give.

Locke, a Hearts fan, player, captain, and now coach has yet to be involved in a derby defeat and will feel that good fortune is on his side but the man who started the season helping preparing the Tynecastle squad for the new campaign before he was sacked just three games into it, has since been enlisted by their city rivals, and he says his record in the noteable head-to-heads has not been too shabby either, winning more than he has lost.

“Yeah, I just wonder who is the most lucky omen,” says Brown, who was an an integral part of Hearts’ 1998 Scottish Cup triumph, as one half of the successful management team alongside Jim Jefferies. “Lockey’s record in derbies is mostly when he played and he is not playing now. I never played in a derby at Hearts or Hibs, my record is as an assistant manager, so we will see. But it’s an interesting occasion, no doubt about that. He is a great lad, Lockey, and it will be strange being on the different bench from him on Monday.”

How Brown would love to have a player of his ilk in the green and white tomorrow. He acknowledges the need for winners with fearless drive on such occasions and, while he is still getting to know the Hibs squad as well as the Hearts one he helped piece together over the past couple of years, he is not yet convinced he has a that grit in the ranks.

“We will find out on Monday if we have a Gary Locke here. I haven’t taken part in a derby as part of the Hibs management so I don’t know who is going to rise to the occasion or whether we have people in there who can rise to the occasion. These are big, big games. These aren’t just three points, these are different games and it needs people with fire in their bellies and ice in their heads to succeed in these games. To be honest with you, if you’ve got to fire players up for a game like this then you’ve got problems.”

A quick squint at the league table verifies that Hibs do have problems. They sit second bottom with just three wins in the entire league campaign and, despite a switch in management, they still haven’t won in the last nine games. The last time they triumphed in the Edinburgh head-to-head was back in 2009 and while Hearts have won just one game away from home in almost a year, scoring just four goals on their SPL travels this term, their tally of 14 goals conceded both home and away this season is still fewer than the 15 Hibs have leaked at Easter Road alone.

It all suggests that Brown will need more luck than Locke if he is to leave the ground smiling. In the stands behind them will sit Jefferies, a staunch Jambo but lifelong friend of Brown. “Jim and [his wife] Linda are coming to the game as my guests on Monday, coming along with my wife. Jim has been a Hearts supporter all his life and always wants Hearts to win, obviously, but I just think that this time he may condescend to give us a draw!”

Not well enough to satisfy Hearts’ majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov. Back for their second spell in management at the Gorgie club, Jefferies and Brown were surprise first casualties of the season. A sense of injustice still lingers but the feelings of resentment are reserved for the Lithuanian banker and not the club as a whole, despite the fact he will do everything he can to dish out a defeat tomorrow. “I hope any abuse I get is good natured. I worked my backside off for the two periods I was at Hearts but I’m at Hibs now and I expect to come in for a certain amount of abuse but that’s the way it goes. It is funny to be on the other side of the fence but it is such a privilege to be here and to have been good enough to be in management with both clubs – two big Scottish clubs – is brilliant and I have great affection for them both.

“It is strange. I took the boys for pre-season along with Jim and Gary and we were in Italy and we did the training and made the plans for the season and to have that taken away from you the way we did was unfortunate. We knew we had a good team there and we were going to do well this season..”

Admitting he feels a small sense of responsibility for the Hearts’ players current plight, having helped lure many there, he says he still has a lot of time and respect for a group he describes as ‘dangerous’.

“What is happening there at the moment hasn’t been reflected in the players’ attitudes. I don’t know what happened at Aberdeen but the two previous performances were outstanding and they were outstanding because the players there have a great desire to go out and perform on a match day and a great desire to win.

“I have got to know the players here but obviously I have known most of the Hearts players a lot longer and that is a strange situation but I hope the background knowledge I have of the Hearts players will help us get a result.”

Taken from the Scotsman