The Edinburgh massive

The rivalry between Hibs and Hearts here in Edinburgh is, frankly, not as friendly as it should be at times. I have friends on both sides of the maroon-and-green divide, and over the course of the season -- when and only when Dumbarton are not playing -- I will make trips to see both of them.

That said, I live in Leith and Easter Road Stadium (pictured) is less than a mile from where I stay… plus the Hibees link with the Sons, through gaffer Ian Murray and others, is strong. So I lean green. Or at least, I  have in recent Scottish Cup finals, though I tend to avoid the derbies.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the possibility/probability that the mighty DFC will get to play at Tynecastle next season, and hope that Hearts can recover and flourish as a fan-directed club after their recent woes. This afternoon they are up against Inverness Caley Thistle (former boss: new Hibs gaffer Terry Butcher) in the Scottish League Cup semi-final this afternoon… and, ironically, the match is at Easter Road.

If I'd had the time and money I'd have tried to grab a ticket. As it is, I'll be watching on BBC1 Scotland. The other semi, won 4-0 by Aberdeen against St Johnstone, grabbed the headlines for the right, footballing reasons. I hope the same is true of today's showcase, given the unsavoury happenings after the game at Gorgie yesterday.

There will be another major Scottish final without either of the Old Firm involved at the end of this season, that's for sure. This can only be good for the game here, which deserves much more of a break (especially in the media) than it gets.

Hearts hype is way short of reality

According to much of the sports media, the Scottish Premier League title is now 'open' and a 'three-horse race'. My advice is not to believe the hype. 'Hearts on fire' reads the Scotland on Sunday headline (aping the famous song) after the Tynecastle club squeaked a 1-0 win over Rangers yesterday with a 77th minute goal from Ryan Stevenson. Even the BBC is telling us they are "genuine title contenders".

Nonsense. Far from being 'on fire' Hearts looked lacklustre for the majority of the match, with only Rangers' failure to take their chances giving them the opportunity to claim all three points from what was effectively their first shot on target from the game. Don't get me wrong. I was delighted to see the 'Gers beaten, very happy for Edinburgh, and extremely satisfied to have seen both Old Firm sides lose on my two live games in Gorgie this season (this one being made possible by the regrettable calling-off of Dumbarton's game at East Fife).

But there's no point kidding ourselves. The Jambos would (I'm sad to say) struggle in the second tier of English football, let alone the first. Rangers looked peaky too, especially in the wake of Kenny Miller's probably ill-fated decision to take the money and run to Turkey. And Hearts looked weak up front without Kevin Kyle, with Rudi Skacel looking less than his best - and with Rangers' Kyle Lafferty seeming lonely up front too, incidentally.

I'll be happy to be proved wrong and to see the Celtic-Rangers duopoly broken for the first time since the mid-80s with Alex Ferguson's high-flying Aberdeen. But the economic circumstances are much less equitable now than then (naive advocates of a ten-team SPL in the C21st, please note), the Old Firm depth of squad much greater, and the real test of Hearts' mettle will be the two away games at Parkhead and Ibrox which are just about to come up. My advance prediction is that they won't take more than one point out of those two encounters. Sadly. 
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Make that a double

Not being persuaded by the bitternesses that can infect some football rivalries, I was equally delighted that Hibernian had managed to overcome Rangers 3-0 at Ibrox the other night as I was to witness Hearts' determined 2-0 defeat of Celtic. A double for Edinburgh!

In public I affect a studied neutrality when it comes to the capital's two largest football teams, though being a Leith resident I'd tip the green way given a choice. To be fair, I even even saw some Jambos applauding that result from Glasgow. If anything unites non-Old Firm football fans up here, it's a win over one of the terrible twins - let alone two in one night. A happy evening for the Athens of the North, then, as the Daily Record noted the next day.

To even the personal score, I hope to get to Easter Road (only a mile away) sometime soon. The midweek opportunity has simply nor arisen yet.
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Hearts of darkness

Peering through the gloom at Tynecastle

Living in Leith (natural Hibernian territory), as I now do, sneaking off to Tynecastle is not something you do without a few furtive looks over your shoulder. Or a pair of dark glasses. Well, it was a sunny evening when I set off for Gorgie. By the time I got in to the ground to watch Hearts take on English foes Wolverhampton Wanderers in a pre-season friendly, however, my mood was definitely darker.

After 50 minutes or so being made to hang around outside, waiting for an unnecessary queue to evaporate, I'd missed the first 19 minutes of the game and the only two goals (Wolves won 2-0, with embarrassing ease). Thanks to a 'family friendly' 7pm start and the daft decision by the Club to stop home supporters getting tickets on the gate, we all had to hang around while ticket-office operators slowly scrolled their computer screens to find numbered seats. Yes, for a non-packed friendly. Away fans, I later discovered, had been able to hand over their hard-earned cash at the turnstile. As a result they got to see Wolves claim two cheaply conceded goals, including a penalty, in the first half - while hundreds of locals were left outside. Not a good way to encourage people to come back or bring friends and family along. So, hello Tynecastle; and farewell. When I'm not watching Dumbarton and have the chance, I'll be down Easter Road instead.

As for the part of the match I did get to see: it was pretty but poor - an all-too-typical training game in which, much as they huffed and puffed, a slightly under-strength Heart of Midlothian could not get anywhere near the stratosphere occupied by a side that finished just above relegation in the EPL last season. Not a great testimony to to the SPL, I'm afraid. There wasn't a great deal of goalmouth action, either. And what there was I strained to see: because after making me hang around for the best part of an hour, the Hearts admin kindly put me behind a pillar in the 'main' stand. Pity, because the rest of the ground is great, and there was acres of space across the way on the cantilevered side.

(Oh, and it was good to have the kids on the pitch at half-time, to receive some applause and encouragement. That was definitely the bright spot of the occasion.)
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