All set for city showdown

The Championship’s form teams lock horns when Hearts meet Hibs at Tynecastle today. The Gorgie men have established a seemingly unassailable lead at the top of the table but Hibs impressive victory over Rangers last weekend gives them hope that they can end their rival’s unbeaten run.

Everything has gone right for Hearts this season; never mind just the ‘talk o’ the toon’, the Tynecastle club’s transformation has been the talk of Scottish football. In a wee media world where Glesca remains the centre of the football universe, Rangers ongoing woes still capture most of the headlines but there’s been a quiet revolution taking place at Tynecastle.

The club has embraced a radical business idea – well, the football business, anyway – where you only spend as much as you take in and you don’t buy things you can’t afford to pay for! I know, it sounds crazy but it seems to be working so far for Hearts; call me delusional but maybe one day all cubs will operate this way – the ones that survive, anyway.

Living in the real world has done Hearts no harm, either. The club has established a fifteen point gap at the top of the table and has gone eighteen league games unbeaten – the sole remaining unbeaten club in the British leagues. Fans have flocked back in their thousands. It’s working.

Hearts have dropped just four points all season and that’s mainly down mainly to organisation and the increasing confidence that goes with a successful run. Hearts started the season with a win over Rangers and have topped the table ever since – week after week they have continued to relentlessly grind out results (even when they haven’t played well) with a consistency none of the challengers can match. It’s a winning mentality that’s become ingrained.

Hibs performance against Rangers last weekend was mighty impressive – the best ninety minutes the Easter Road men have enjoyed for years. Critics point to a woeful Rangers side but very few teams could have resisted the Hibs we saw last week. The problem is, though, consistency – what Hibs team will we see today? The buccaneering, free-flowing, attacking cavaliers of last week or the timid, disorganised, nervous bunch of individuals who too often underperform against sides they should comfortably see off?

If it’s the former, we’re in for a treat – facing Hearts at Tynecastle is a formidable test and it will be fascinating to see just how far Stubbs’ team has progressed. If it’s the latter, Hearts will bully them and brush them aside.

You don’t need an extra incentive in an Edinburgh derby, but for Hearts it’s surely to keep that unbeaten record intact while Hibs fans would take an awful lot of pleasure if their team was to bring that Tynecastle run to a crashing halt. Realistically it’s too late to mount a serious challenge to Hearts, but a victory over Hearts would get the New Year off to just the right start for Hibees.

Hearts go into today’s game without front men Dale Carrick, Soufian El Hassnaoui and Osman Sow, while defender Kevin McHattie is also an absentee. Lack of front men has not proved too much of an inconvenience in the league campaign so far, however – and who better than Director of Football Craig Levein to offer Robbie Neilson some sage advice about setting up a team without a recognised striker!

Hibs have been boosted by news that talismanic striker Dominique Malonga is available after being given special dispensation to delay his trip to the African Nations Cup with Congo. Neither Jordon Forster or Dylan McGeouch are likely to figure today and Farid El Alagui is also ruled out.

Key men today are likely to be Hibs’ Scott Allan, who was immense against Rangers and has impressed all season, and Hearts’ influential midfielder Morgaro Gomis but there are likely to be key personal duels going on all over the park and it’s just as likely that a totally unexpected match winner will be today’s derby hero.

I don’t expect any silky, flowing football but I do expect drama and excitement and I hope it’s the players, and not the match officials, who make tomorrow’s headlines.

If Hearts take something from today’s testing encounter there’s every reason to believe that they can negotiate the remainder of their league games without defeat. That would be a mighty achievement, and it’s enough of an incentive to convince me that Hearts won’t allow themselves to be beaten today – I predict a score draw.