There has been much debate recently on Hibs being the 'flair' side in Edinburgh.

Hearts and Hibs fans can debate endlessly if the 'Famous Five' were better than the 'Terrible Trio'. They will never agree on such a subjective issue.

London Hearts using their database therefore decided to apply objective scientific rigour to the issue.

Rather than focus on individual seasons we've had a look at trends over time.

Time periods have been split into the following periods. Only seasons where Hearts and Hibs were both in the same division are included. Thus seasons when either was relegated are excluded.

Era	No of Seasons
1895-1914	19
1914-1939	23
1946-1965	19
1965-1983	13
1983-2003	19

Therefore to make an objective measure we've decided to use 'Goals For' scored over the season.

We've used 2 comparisons

Comparing Hearts and Hibs goals for against each another.

For this we only count one side as being better if they have scored 10 or more goals than the other are they judged to be better.

Comparing average goals per game with the league average.

Average goals per game is compared against the average goals scored per game across the whole league.

Hearts vs Hibs Goals For

ERA	HEARTS	HIBS	NEITHER
1895-1914	8		11
1914-1939	15	2	6
1946-1965	8	6	5
1965-1983	1	8	4
1983-2003	7	1	11
Grand Total	39	17	37

As a Graph

	Comparison with Goals per Game Average
	Hearts Better	Hearts Worse	Hibs Better	Hibs Worse
1895-1914	14	5	9	10
1914-1939	17	6	6	17
1946-1965	14	5	15	4
1965-1983	2	11	10	3
1983-2003	11	8	3	16

Conclusions

Prior to WWII Hearts clearly superior.

The Era of the Famous Five/Terrible Trio very even. Hearts slightly better off in number of times scored more goals (2 times more), Hibs better in goals per  game average (1 more than Hearts)

Turnball's Tornados Hibs clearly superior.

Since Hearts return to Premier Hearts are much better off.