Hibs V Hearts Preview

The match will only be new manager John Collins' second in charge of the Hibees and therefore his players will have an extra incentive to impress. Not that they should need it however, as this team are full of fiery young guys who appear to have genuine Hibs allegiances. They always try extremely hard in this fixture, too hard sometimes in fact, to the point where they have in the past let emotion get in the way of playing the game properly. Scott Brown for me is the best example of this: a player with a fantastic reputation (although quite where that comes from I'm not too sure) but one who often lets the derby occasion get to him too much to perform. Mind you I probably shouldn't have said that though..........the proverbial kiss of death!

Hearts go into this with their dressing room still seemingly in a state of confusion and on the back of a bitterly disappointing day at Parkhead on Saturday. However positives should be taken from the way the team performed there and if the tactics, if not the same personnel, are deployed this evening then they should fancy their chances of at least giving the hosts a far better game than they did a few weeks ago in the 2-2 draw. That particular match really should have been beyond Hearts and to be honest the difference that day probably boiled down to the two goalkeepers, but they were able to hang in and salvage an improbable point.

Team selection for the last derby was nothing short of a joke, but if Saturday's line-up was anything to go by we could still be looking at a team that few of us would pick ourselves. I'd be very surprised if the likes of Zaliukas and Mikoliunas don't start tonight which is a big risk even if Hearts do use the 4-5-1 tactic they deployed at Parkhead. In that game Hearts were able to control the midfield, but Hibs are also likely to line up with five in midfield and the players they'll use there will be much more mobile than Celtic's were. It's surely time for Brellier AND Aguiar to start.

Passions will run high and the Hibs manager's head is now more like a square than that of a monkey.....it promises to be an entertaining evening!

Scott Brown and Chris Killen are expected to be available for selection for Hibs, with Killen still a slight doubt.

Hearts expect Steven Pressley to return from flu or whatever it was he had at the weekend. Deividas Cesnauskas and Neil McCann are definitely out however.