Edinburgh derby

The Edinburgh derby is an informal title given to any football match played between Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) and Hibernian (Hibs), who are by far the two biggest clubs in Edinburgh, Scotland. The two clubs have a fierce rivalry that dates back to the clubs being founded in the mid-1870s, which makes it one of the oldest (and longest running) rivalries in world football. The first match between the clubs was played on the Meadows on Christmas Day 1875, with Hearts winning by 1–0.

The matches are normally played at either Easter Road or Tynecastle. It is currently played three or four times a year in the SPL, depending on whether both teams finish in the same section after the league splits near the end of the season. The teams sometimes also play against one another in cup tournaments such as the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup.

This has seldom happened in recent decades, although they did meet at Hampden Park in the 2006 Scottish Cup semi-final (Hearts winning by 4–0), and also faced each other in the quarter-final of the 2006–07 League Cup (Hibs winning 1–0). Their most famous cup meeting occurred in the 1896 Scottish Cup Final — the only final played outside of Glasgow — which was won 3–1 by Hearts.

Records in these matches

Overall record

Hearts have the better record in derbies, with 128 wins to Hibs' 82 wins and 82 draws in 292 competitive matches. There have been approximately 600 Edinburgh derbies to date [ [http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/tea/hibernian.html London Hearts] ] , meaning that as of 2007 more than half of all derbies have been played in local competitions and "friendlies". Hearts hold a lead of 140 wins to Hibs' 112 wins in these other games.

ingle game records

Hibs recorded the biggest margin of victory in a competitive match with a 7–0 victory at Tynecastle on 1 January 1973. The biggest win in "other" matches was a 10–2 Hearts victory in a friendly match 12 August 1893. Hearts scored the most goals in a competitive match with a 8–3 win in the League on 21 September 1935.

Prolific goalscorers

John Robertson scored 27 goals against Hibs in competitive games. Robertson was nicknamed "The Hammer of Hibs" due to his prolific goal record in derbies. Both Bobby Walker (32) and Tommy Walker (29) scored more goals in derbies than Robertson taking account of 'local' cup and league games.

Hibs' top scorer with 15 goals was Gordon Smith, who later joined Hearts and Dundee, becoming the only player to win the Scottish League with three different clubs. James McGhee scored at least 24 goals for Hibs in the early years of the fixture. The real figure is probably higher as he played in a lot of games where only the result is known and not all the scorers were recorded [ [http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/misc/eras.htm#sc1 London Hearts] ] .

Record attendance

The record crowd for an Edinburgh derby was 65,860 on 2 January 1950 when Hearts won 2-1 at Easter Road. This was also the biggest crowd for any Scottish game played outside Glasgow [ [http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/games/19500102.html London Hearts] ] .

Major matches

The most important match between the clubs was the Scottish Cup final of 1896, which was played at Logie Green, Edinburgh. This is the only time the Scottish Cup final has been played outside of Glasgow as of 2007. Hearts won the final 3–1 before a crowd of 17,340 [ [http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/games/18960314.html London Hearts] ] .

The most important match in recent years was the Scottish Cup semi-final of 2006. Both clubs played in the knowledge that victory would lead to a final against Gretna, who were a Scottish Second Division club at the time. Hearts won the semi-final against Hibs by 4–0 and went on to win the competition on a penalty shootout in the final.

Hibs gained some revenge in the following season by winning a League Cup quarter final against Hearts by 1–0 and going on to win the competition with wins against St Johnstone and Kilmarnock.

Periods of dominance

Season 1886-87 was Hibs' best ever against their local rivals in terms of goal scoring, as they won 5–1 in the third round of the Scottish Cup at Easter Road on the way to becoming the first ‘Eastern’ club to win the Scottish Cup. This was followed by wins of 3–0, 5–2 and 7–1 in other competitions. In the 7–1 win, James McGhee scored 5 goals in the first 25 minutes. The defeat of the then cup holders in the following season 1887-88 marked the end of Hibs' domination over Hearts. Hibs did not enjoy a similar sustained period of success in the fixture until the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Hearts hold the record for consecutive derbies without a loss, a 22-game streak straddling the 1980s and 1990s. Hibs' longest unbeaten streak was 12 games from 1974 to 1978. Hearts hold the best winning streak of 7 games from 1916 to 1919. Hibs' longest winning streak is 3 wins, achieved on three occasions in the 1880s, 1920s and 1940s respectively.

Since the creation of the Scottish Premier Division in 1975 and the introduction of four league games between clubs in a season, neither club has managed to win all four league derbies in a season. Hearts have achieved 3 wins and a draw twice, in 1996-97 and 2006-07. Hibs' best is 3 wins and a loss in 1994-95 [ [http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/tea/hibernian.html#Sea London Hearts] ] .

Local competitions and other Edinburgh clubs

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the clubs often met each other 10 times in a single season due to the plethora of local competitions, such as the East of Scotland Shield, Rosebery Charity Cup, Wilson Cup, and the Dunedin Cup. These competitions also involved the other clubs in Edinburgh and the surrounding area. Hearts and Hibs were the most frequent winners of these competitions.

St Bernards, Leith Athletic, Meadowbank Thistle and Edinburgh City have all represented the city of Edinburgh in the Scottish Football League. The first Scottish Football League derby was played between Hearts and Leith Athletic on October 24 1891, Hearts winning 3–1 [ [http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/games/18911024.html London Hearts] ] . This was because Hibs were in the process of being reformed and did not enter the Scottish Football League until the 1893-94 season. The first league derby between Hearts and Hibs was played at Tynecastle on September 28 1895, Hearts winning 4–3 [ [http://londonhearts.com/scores/games/18950928.html www.londonhearts.com] ] .

The East of Scotland Shield is the only one of the local competitions that is contested by Hearts and Hibs today, albeit by young reserve teams. The Shield is contested by a one-off match and gate takings are given to the Edinburgh Football Association.

Festival Cup

The Festival Cup was introduced in 2003 to tie in with the annual Edinburgh Festival. The local media speculated that clubs from cities twinned with Edinburgh, including Bayern Munich and Dynamo Kiev, would be invited to participate in an annual Edinburgh tournament. It was hoped this would be similar to the annual Amsterdam Tournament.

Eventually, the clubs settled for playing a single derby match on the last Saturday before the start of the 2003-04 SPL season. The SPL did not help the launch of the Festival Cup by scheduling a league derby match just two weeks after the Festival Cup match, also at Easter Road. Hearts won the first Festival Cup match 1–0 with a goal by Andy Webster.

The clubs then had difficulty scheduling the 2004-05 match, partly due to Hibs being involved in the Intertoto Cup. The Festival Cup match was eventually played at Tynecastle on September 4 2004. Both teams were below full strength because several notable players were training with their national squads as the match was played during an international break. Playing the game in September also meant that the game was played after the start of the league season and after the end of the Edinburgh Festival. Due to these factors, the match attracted a much lower crowd than would normally be expected for a derby. Hearts won the second and to date last Festival Cup match 3–1.

New Year derby

A derby match was traditionally played each New Year, either on New Year's Day itself or on 2 January, which is an official bank holiday in Scotland. The New Year match has rarely taken place in recent years due to the scheduling policy of the SPL, dictated by live television coverage, which has similarly affected the traditional New Year Old Firm derby. Of the 88 games played at New Year, Hibs hold a slight lead of 31 wins to 28 Hearts wins. Only two New Year derbies have been played in this decade: a 4–4 draw at Tynecastle in 2003 and a 1–1 draw at Easter Road in 2005 [ [http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/misc/nerday.html London Hearts] ] .

elected games

Players with both clubs

Notes

External links