Hearts v Hibs 7 Aug 2005 (1st half)

Hearts played Hibs at Tynecastle on 7 Aug 2005. Full match coverage from Setanta. WHILE the Vladimir Romanov revolution might have begun some months ago, there was a feeling of an official stamp having been planted across it on a fiery afternoon at Tynecastle. The promised pyrotechnics materialised in the centre-circle prior to kick-off and were an apt scene-setter for a match which proved too much even for the normally mild-mannered Tony Mowbray, sent to the stand before half-time after a prolonged argument with the referee, Stuart Dougal.

It was an early indication that the afternoon was going awry for Hibs, though not the first. Gary Caldwell, the Easter Road centre half, had already departed the rapidly fraying scene with the alarming complaint of a punctured lung. And even before this worrying moment, Rudi Skacel had put Hearts on the way to equalling the emphatic win they recorded here three years ago, when Mark De Vries' four-goal burst framed a 5-1 derby win|.

Unlike that afternoon in Gorgie, this was no one-man show. Four goals, four different scorers, the first strike coming early in the game and the last with four minutes remaining. It reflected Hearts' almost total domination of a match which suggested that the absence of European football at Tynecastle this year will be off-set very nicely by George Burley's gathering of continental stars.

If you can't take the club into Europe, bring Europe to the club seems to his thinking. And who can argue, although Hearts did field another healthy quota of seven Scots in a starting 11 later supplemented by two more home-grown substitutes. Skacel enjoyed a fruitful derby debut, as did the hard-working Julien Brellier in centre midfield. Edgarus Jankauskas failed a pre-match fitness test, while yet another new signing, Roman Bednar, was a peripheral figure, something which suggested Hearts were not even firing on all cylinders. It's an ominous thought, one confirmed later by Burley, who revealed his foreign signings are some way from being fully match fit. "There is a lot of work still to be done," he said.

There is a school of thought which promotes the theory that the SPL needs a strong Edinburgh challenger. A few weeks ago, when Hearts barely had enough players to field a team, few would have expected it to arrive from the west end of a city last night shaking with the significance of this result.

Category:

Sports

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• Hearts
• Hibs
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• Midlothian
• Hibernian
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[PeterR132]

Agreed, magnificent upload!

12:27, legend!

[DGdescription]

What an upload! :D

Cheers