Easter Road would be ideal stage for Templeton's confidence-building return to form

Published on Monday 2 January 2012 00:39

David Templeton is obviously one of Hearts' biggest threats to Hibernian today. What is not so obvious is how the home team can go about shutting down the winger.

Four or five of them tried that at Easter Road last season, only to be left trailing in the Hearts player's wake as he scored his team's first goal in a 2-0 win. It was a magical moment which lit up the match in November 2010, and which remains a special memory for the player, who will celebrate his 23rd birthday on Saturday.

"Playing in the Edinburgh derby, and scoring in it, has got to be the biggest moment of my career so far – along with playing against Tottenham, which was massive," Templeton said of that solo effort 14 months ago. "I can't remember who I went past.

"I just remember I got it about the halfway line and turned, and everything seemed to open up for me.

"I managed to take a touch inside [Sol] Bamba and slot it past the keeper. That's definitely the best goal I've scored, and the most important as well."

Despite being blessed with that ability to cut a defence open, Templeton is far from being a prolific scorer. In fact, he had gone a year without scoring a goal when he was on the mark in his team's 4-0 win against Dunfermline last month. It was a result which gave the Hearts team as a whole new hope, and the goal instilled new-found confidence into Templeton.

"That was getting to me," he said of his scoring drought. "I do like to score and knowing it was a year I was obviously wanting to get that goal.

"Thankfully, I finally got it and since then I've been playing quite well, so hopefully that continues.

"I'm getting a lot more of the ball and varying my game, which is making it more difficult for defenders. Hopefully that can continue and we keep getting good results."

Unsurprisingly given that goal, Templeton is looking forward to returning to Easter Road, where he is sure a full Hearts end will provide vocal backing.

"I really like it there," he said.

"The support is always great and makes it a good atmosphere. I really enjoy playing there, so hopefully we'll get another good result, because every time I've been there we've always had one. It's a massive game and we know what it means to everyone involved, especially the fans.

"I'm sure we'll put in a good performance and everyone will be pleased.

"Everyone has been looking forward to it ever since the last one, so everyone will be buzzing for it. Last season when we had the New Year derby, everyone was really up for it, as you could tell when we scored the goal and everyone went through the roof," he said, referring to a 1-0 win for Hearts at Tynecastle.

"Hopefully we can do that again and get the fans partying like last year."

Taken from the Scotsman