Hearts v Hibs: How to prepare for an Edinburgh derby

For many, the encounter at Tynecastle Park will be an eye-opening experience. For others, it serves as the latest meeting between the capital’s rivals. One thing is for sure – whether it’s a player’s first derby or their fiftieth, there will be a few butterflies whirling around their stomachs before the game kicks off at 3pm on Saturday.

So, how do you go about preparing for such a big fixture? Hearts Standard spoke with three Edinburgh derby veterans to discover how they steeled themselves for meetings with Hibs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

‘I think you’re always nervous… anything can happen’

The 2011/12 season was an important one for Ryan McGowan. It was the campaign where he became a first-team regular at Hearts, scored his first goal in maroon and played in his first Edinburgh derby. Come the end of the season, he would play his part in the biggest and most famous match in the fixture's long history – but before all that, he still had to establish himself in the starting line-up. After spending the early stages of his career coming through the youth system at Hearts, he knew exactly what was at stake in matches against Hibs – and couldn’t wait to get involved.

“At the start of the season they’re always the games you are looking out for,” said the former Hearts defender, now on the books at St Johnstone.

“From my point of view, I think people forget that I was at the club for such a long period of time before I had my breakthrough. I got to experience it as a fan and when I was part of the Under-19s, we used to get tickets for loads of derbies. I loved the whole atmosphere around it. I remember Gary Glen scoring at Easter Road and how that propelled him at the time. It gave me that inner desire to try and replicate that.

“I worked out fairly early on that if you are playing well in derbies and winning those games, it can buy you a bit of time if you have a couple of bad performances afterwards. But at the same time, if you lose then everything gets highlighted and there’s almost a crisis meeting. I enjoyed that type of pressure that came with those games. It was always important to be playing well in the build-up to them so that you knew you’d be starting and can make an impact on the game.

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“You do get nervous. Sometimes when you’re on the bench it’s a lot more nerve-wracking than if you’re starting because you can’t influence it. You don’t know when you’re coming on; it could be after the first five minutes or coming on for the last five. I’m pretty sure my first derby was away at Easter Road and I came off the bench. It was 1-1 when I came on, then they went 2-1 up, then Stephen Elliot scored right at the end. I just remember absolutely loving it. We almost celebrated it as a win. That was a great feeling and it was my first taste of the action on the pitch. It was pretty special to be involved in – and I wanted to be involved in every single derby after that.”

McGowan’s first start in an Edinburgh derby was certainly a memorable affair. The Australian opened the scoring at Easter Road on January 2, 2012 but he also could have seen red after he headbutted Ivan Sproule on the park. He got away with it initially before serving a two-match suspension that was awarded retrospectively – and the experience served as a timely reminder of the cost of failing to manage the emotion of the occasion.

“It was at the turn of the year, away at Easter Road,” McGowan recalled. “I had been in and out of the team so that was my first start in a derby. It was all set up to be a bit of a blockbuster. I remember stealing a goal and celebrating in front of the fans, which was amazing. Then they scored pretty much from kick-off!

“That was a big wake-up call and learning experience for me. All of a sudden you’re thinking, ‘no one’s going to remember that goal if we end up losing’. I was pretty happy when Rudi [Skacel] scored right at the end to make it 3-1! My first goal was at Easter Road in front of the Hearts fans, which is a pretty cool thing to do.

“I ended up getting a two-game suspension after [the coming-together with Sproule]. It could have turned really sour if I’d ended up getting sent off after scoring. Those are those little bits of luck that you get, I guess. It went down well with the Hearts fans, too. It’s so difficult – you can tell players what it’s like and speak to them about it, but until you’ve actually done it… it’s a pretty unique thing to experience. I was lucky enough that it didn’t cost the team but I certainly learned my lesson!”

When the Scottish Cup final rolled around, it quickly became clear that the match would be the biggest game ever contested by Hearts and Hibs. It remains the only time the two rivals have met in the final and the players on both sides knew exactly how much was on the line. Rather than being burdened down by the prospect of defeat, though, McGowan says he and his team-mates went into the game inspired by what success would mean for them as individuals and the club as a whole.

“We knew we could go on to do something special,” he explained. “We weren’t worried about losing it or the consequences of that. We knew that if we won the cup, the consequences for us as a team and as individuals were huge. The chances of there being another Scottish Cup final that’s an Edinburgh derby are pretty slim, so we wanted to make sure that we were remembered for all the right reasons. They’re the games that people never forget.

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“Before the game, the consequences for the winners and the losers were so high. To come away from it with that performance, winning the cup, getting on the scoresheet – to do all that with the club that I supported and had come through at, it really was a dream come true. I absolutely loved it and I still to this day get people coming up to me and telling me all about it.

“We had a real belief that we could go out and win the game. And most importantly, we knew that if we did that, we knew what it could do for ourselves as individuals. That would springboard us on to do something that no Hearts player had ever done. You want to be involved in massive games so we took that mindset of ‘let’s not worry about the consequences if we lose. Let’s focus on winning it and be a team that will be remembered for the next 10, 20, 30 years’. We were all super excited about that and we were determined to make that happen, rather than worrying about losing the game.

“I think you’re always nervous. You always have that… it’s not a worry as such, but it’s a football game. Anything can happen. As a defender, you don’t want to be the one that slips or gives away a penalty or something like that. Strikers don’t have it so bad – they can have a stinker and they just get subbed off after 60 minutes! I remember being nervous and wanting to make sure I didn’t cost a goal, or lose my man at a corner or a free-kick and cost my team. That kind of happens for every game but the derbies are always what people remember a little bit more than your standard league games. You’re probably more focused and more switched on in the derby games because you know how much it means to so many people. You want to make sure you don’t let anyone down.”

‘Enjoy it, have a laugh, have a joke’

McGowan may have been concerned about the potential impact of a costly error at the back, but not every Hearts player approached the derby with the same sense of trepidation. In what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, Jose Quitongo always cut a pretty relaxed figure – even when the tension and the pressure was ratcheted up.

“It was just the same, even though you were playing a rival team,” Quitongo says in his typically laidback manner. “You know it’s going to be a fight, there will be big tackles, all that stuff. But with the way I am, I was always relaxed going into games. If I play well, I play well. If I don’t, it’s just football, you know? I never took it too seriously anyway.

“I’m a very relaxed person because I was very quick. In games like that, you always need to think quickly because if you are fannying about then your leg’s going to end up broken. That’s the way I used to play. I didn’t want anyone near me so I moved quickly. It’s easier if you don’t let anyone get close to you.

“I had an amazing time at Hearts because they were flying at that time. They were a really good team with good players. I was just happy to be a part of it. Whenever I came off the bench I always tried my best – but always with a smile on my face. This is why I tell my kids to never take football too seriously. Football is a job, but you go there and try and do your best. After the game, you go home. People sometimes take it too seriously but I don’t. Life is a joke anyway, the same as football. Enjoy it, have a laugh, have a joke. You know what I mean?

“I’m a very confident person, even now. I could play against David Beckham and I would act the exact same way. I can’t explain it. It’s just me. Maybe because I was born in Africa and being chased by lions! But confidence is good. You need that. Whenever you’re on the park, no matter who you are playing, it’s still 11 men. You’re fit, you’re good – why not?

“Football now misses these kinds of things. It’s too serious and too weak. I remember in my time, the manager was Jim Jeffries – big guy. When we didn’t play well, he would be shouting in everyone’s faces. These days? If a manager did that then a player would say they were being bullied. Players these days wouldn’t last two weeks back then.”

Quitongo raises an interesting prospect. It’s hard to imagine the Angolan, who never smoked or drank during his playing career, fitting into the modern game. By his own admission, he was never the most professional operator and the one-time Hearts winger admits his career may have been hampered by his late-night antics. Not that he feels he couldn’t hack it, though – even if he has become a little disenchanted with the beautiful game these days.

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He laughed: “I’d play with a big cigar in my mouth! I feel football is so easy now, so easy. I coach kids now and I always tell them, ‘if you want to be a footballer, just be disciplined. Practice every day and you’ll get better’. I never drank and I never smoked but I used to go out all the time. This is the reason I didn’t play as long. I used to party all the time – I’d maybe get in at 2am and then go and play the next day, but you can’t. The lack of sleep makes it impossible to play at the same level."

‘You had ice in your brain and blood in your heart’

Some players felt nervous heading into the derby. Others would be so laidback they were almost horizontal. But what about the men on the sidelines, who were ultimately responsible for the result?

There is perhaps no one better placed to offer some insight than Billy Brown. The long-time assistant to Jim Jeffries is one of the few to have coached on both sides of the Edinburgh divide – three stints as Hearts’ No.2, while there was a spell as Hbs assistant and caretaker during the 2011/12 campaign – and the 72-year-old says he was fortunate to be at Tynecastle at a time when few players needed to be told of the importance of the fixture.

He recalled: “When we went to Hearts, there were still quite a lot of players that had been there for a few years – the likes of Gary Mackay and John Robertson. They knew all about the derby. We never changed the training that week but you could feel in the training that things were different for that Saturday. You could sense that the next game wasn’t just a normal game.

“The problem is you can get too excited for the game, so we tried to keep it cool to a certain extent. But someone like Gary Mackay, for instance – he’s Hearts-daft. He used to say you had ice in your brain and blood in your heart, so just concentrate on the game. He was a really good player who did very well for us. We used to take the bus down from Tynecastle to Easter Road and we would show videos of previous games, with John Robertson scoring goals and all sorts of things like that. But you’ve got to try and treat it as another game. Especially at the start, we did pretty well at Easter Road. It’s a great game to be involved in.

“Our first derby was at Easter Road and we drew. When we came, we had to start changing the team. I think there were still six or seven players that had lost the league in 1986 so we had to change it gradually. We brought in more new faces but the Gary Mackays and John Robertsons of the world knew exactly what was at stake in those games – and they let everyone else know about it as well.

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“It’s a big game and it gives you a lot of confidence if you can beat your neighbours. Every single one means something. Myself, I always found them enjoyable. I liked the big games and the derby was a lot more enjoyable than a cup tie against a team from a lower league that you’re supposed to beat. They are great to take part in.”

Jeffries and Brown were replaced as the Hearts management team in August 2011 and less than a month later, he was serving as Colin Calderwood’s assistant at Hibs. He would then return to Hearts in 2013 to assist Gary Locke.

As a local lad, Brown knew fine well what he was getting into – and had no complaints about the hostile reception he knew was awaiting him.

“It was a wee bit awkward,” Brown says. “I had got the sack because [Vladimir] Romanov had sacked me and Jim, and we have all got to work. Hibs came in for me the next week. I knew it was a big move and a big decision to make.

“It was a funny period. I’m a local, I come from Musselburgh, so jumping from one club to the other and then back to the other club… I don’t think I was everyone’s favourite but all I did was my best wherever I was. I got a bit of stick [from Hearts fans], aye.

"Pat Fenlon’s last game was a derby on a Wednesday night at Easter Road. It was a League Cup tie and Ryan Stevenson scored a cracking goal that night. I got a bit of stick from the crowd that night but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. And I’ve got to say, it’s understandable. I’m a realist. We played another derby at Tynecastle after that and I think we won again. I did get stick but let’s be honest, I deserved it. I just got on with it. It’s part of the game.”