Will Hearts Burst The Hibs Bubble?

Hearts take on Hibs at Tynecastle tomorrow in this season’s first Edinburgh derby, and for the first time in many years will probably go into the game as slight underdogs despite their home
advantage.

Our Edinburgh rivals have had an excellent start to their campaign under new manager John Hughes, and with the Old Firm looking so weak once again this season, many are suggesting that Hibs could be the team to finally put down a sustained challenge to the ‘Gruesome Twosome’ in the SPL.

While it’s perhaps early days to be talking in such terms, I personally think that it’s refreshing for the league that we have other teams up there challenging, as it’s been far too long since someone had the ability and more crucially, the belief to make a real go of this over an entire campaign. Whether Hibs are indeed going to be strong enough to do this is anyone’s guess right now, but they’ve certainly given themselves a very solid base upon which to build, which is in stark contrast to their hosts tomorrow.

Hearts? Well, where do we start? On their day they can still beat anybody in the league as they’ve proved very recently, but all is certainly not well in the dressing room and beyond at Tynecastle. Last year’s ‘miracle man’ Csaba Laszlo has appeared to have lost his enthusiasm and his knack for a winning formula in recent weeks after his summer of discontent, and it’s been the usual case recently of the fans already talking in terms of him leaving if his poor run of form in the league continues. That is just typical of the short-term thinking that your average football fan has of course, but there does seem to be a genuine belief that Csaba could be out on his ear soon if things don’t improve, particularly if you consider the track record that his boss has when it comes to managers.

For some reason though, despite all the doom and gloom that is surrounding Hearts right now, I’m fairly optimistic about their chances in tomorrow’s derby. I don’t really know why in all honesty – perhaps it’s just that our record in this fixture over the years has generally been very good, and that I’m just expecting us to go out there and give ourselves the morale-boosting victory that’s so badly required because that’s what normally happens. In that case I’m probably being incredibly naive, but let’s wait and see……!

I’m told that the derby is a sell-out tomorrow, and with the game being live on TV, what better occasion for Csaba and his team to finally start finding their feet again and turn their season around? Come on the JTs…..!