How to you view next Sunday's derby?

[G B Young]

Be good to win it, but having got the cup hoodoo off our backs it's a lot less important than last season's game would be my take on it. Promotion has to be the priority this time round.

[Ozyhibby]

It's a derby. It's a must win.


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[Smartie]

It's a derby at Tynecastle in the Scottish Cup.

If this isn't the biggest game of your season then you need your head examined.

[Mathias Jack]

I echo Smartie's sentiments...

The day I can't get myself motivated for a derby, will be the day I stop watching Hibs...and football.

[mutley]

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It's a derby at Tynecastle in the Scottish Cup.

If this isn't the biggest game of your season then you need your head examined.

I agree to an extent that it is a must win game, but for me, the biggest game of the season is one that sees us secure promotion


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[SteveHFC]

We will pump them on Sunday. Biggest game of the season so far for me.

[Waxy]

Every time now i hear this derby isnt important the more i want Hibs to beat them.

[TheHarpy76]

Every Derby is a must win imo, if we go out next round then I won't be too fazed as promotion has to be the priority but we have to win on Sunday.

[Diclonius]

It's Hibs v Hearts - anyone who says it isn't important is kidding themselves.

I'm not particularly bothered about us retaining the cup - just don't want to see us go out to them.

[leggeto]

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We will pump them on Sunday. Biggest game of the season so far for me.

Yeah me too,need to win it but nervous as usual, players better be up for it cause I've seen better hibs teams go there and lose no matter how rubbish they are

[Steve20]

It's important.

I can't believe that teams still use excuses like getting far in cup competitions will derail a promotion bid. It's only an extra 4 games if you get to the final.

[G B Young]

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It's important.

I can't believe that teams still use excuses like getting far in cup competitions will derail a promotion bid. It's only an extra 4 games if you get to the final.

Unforgettable as last season was, I do think the number of cup ties we played in both knock-out tournaments had an impact on our title bid. We looked ready to push The Rangers all the way as we approached Christmas but while we continued to excel in the cup matches we went off the boil in the league at a key stage.

[Smartie]

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Unforgettable as last season was, I do think the number of cup ties we played in both knock-out tournaments had an impact on our title bid. We looked ready to push The Rangers all the way as we approached Christmas but while we continued to excel in the cup matches we went off the boil in the league at a key stage.

I've always thought that our blaming of the cup runs last year on our poor form was just an excuse to distract from our woeful league form.

Rangers were there for the taking and we weren't good enough to put pressure on them.

Players will have their training schedules adjusted to take into consideration the number of games being played, and they would want to play rather than train every day of the week.

Stubbs didn't have a balanced enough squad, didn't have enough width or pace, didn't have a diverse selection of strikers to choose from and didn't have enough firepower to see us run Rangers close enough. A reasonable argument could be made that we haven't improved, we just don't have a strong team like Hearts or Rangers in it, although at the end of the day you only need to beat what is in front of you.

I will always be grateful to Stubbs for the cup win, but the cup win didn't have any impact on our league form, which simply wasn't good enough.

We shouldn't be kidded into thinking anything other than we want to win every game we play and every competition we take part in. There are no silver linings in being knocked out.

[Hibernia&Alba]

Can't wait, though as with all derbies, I'm a bit nervous. I really don't want to go out of the cup as holders to that mob; they'd love that. Wish I could be there, but if we get at least a replay, I'll be more than happy.

[Viva_Palmeiras]

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Unforgettable as last season was, I do think the number of cup ties we played in both knock-out tournaments had an impact on our title bid. We looked ready to push The Rangers all the way as we approached Christmas but while we continued to excel in the cup matches we went off the boil in the league at a key stage.

Financially had to fight on all fronts I'd imagine.

[SRHibs]

Not winning the cup wouldn't bother me, but going out to Them is about as bad as it gets. Must win!

[snooky]

It's a derby - anything can happen and that's what always scares me.

[G B Young]

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I've always thought that our blaming of the cup runs last year on our poor form was just an excuse to distract from our woeful league form.

Rangers were there for the taking and we weren't good enough to put pressure on them.

Players will have their training schedules adjusted to take into consideration the number of games being played, and they would want to play rather than train every day of the week.

Stubbs didn't have a balanced enough squad, didn't have enough width or pace, didn't have a diverse selection of strikers to choose from and didn't have enough firepower to see us run Rangers close enough. A reasonable argument could be made that we haven't improved, we just don't have a strong team like Hearts or Rangers in it, although at the end of the day you only need to beat what is in front of you.

I will always be grateful to Stubbs for the cup win, but the cup win didn't have any impact on our league form, which simply wasn't good enough.

We shouldn't be kidded into thinking anything other than we want to win every game we play and every competition we take part in. There are no silver linings in being knocked out.

I agree to a certain extent, but I'd still say that expecting the team to be at their best in every game was a tall order, especially when you consider there were also four play-off games on top of the cup ties. We often think that decent teams (and we were a decent team on our day last season) should be able to play well in every game but it just doesn't happen. There was an interesting interview with Ryan Giggs over the weekend where he recalled that Sir Alex Ferguson would tell the Man U players that they wouldn't win every game, but that it was how they responded to defeat that would be the most important thing. I'd always imagined Ferguson used to demand his players go out and win every game but I guess it was a mark of his management skills that he knew that more often than not his players would bounce back from a defeat. And I guess that's the difference between a genuinely top quality squad like Ferguson's Man U and a squad like Hibs had last season. We just weren't strong enough to shake off a defeat in time to stop further damage being done.

[SlickShoes]

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It's a derby at Tynecastle in the Scottish Cup.

If this isn't the biggest game of your season then you need your head examined.

It's the biggest game of the season so far, if we reach the final that will be the biggest, if we are in a situation where we need to win a single game to win the league that will be a much bigger game than playing against hearts.

I'm up for it and want to beat them but hibs have potentially bigger games to come.

[frazeHFC]

It's a must win game, as every game should be especially derbies.

[Mr White]

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I agree to a certain extent, but I'd still say that expecting the team to be at their best in every game was a tall order, especially when you consider there were also four play-off games on top of the cup ties. We often think that decent teams (and we were a decent team on our day last season) should be able to play well in every game but it just doesn't happen. There was an interesting interview with Ryan Giggs over the weekend where he recalled that Sir Alex Ferguson would tell the Man U players that they wouldn't win every game, but that it was how they responded to defeat that would be the most important thing. I'd always imagined Ferguson used to demand his players go out and win every game but I guess it was a mark of his management skills that he knew that more often than not his players would bounce back from a defeat. And I guess that's the difference between a genuinely top quality squad like Ferguson's Man U and a squad like Hibs had last season. We just weren't strong enough to shake off a defeat in time to stop further damage being done.

Except we did that twice in the scottish cup. 3 days after losing the league cup final we went up to the highlands and knocked the holders out and 8 days after losing out to Falkirk in the play-off semis we beat the rangers to win the thing. We were pretty strong on both those occasions imo.

[G B Young]

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Except we did that twice in the scottish cup. 3 days after losing the league cup final we went up to the highlands and knocked the holders out and 8 days after losing out to Falkirk in the play-off semis we beat the rangers to win the thing. We were pretty strong on both those occasions imo.

That's true and it was testimony to Stubbs and his players that they were able to bounce back like that. Perhaps there was an element of destiny at work there when it came to the Scottish Cup, but my point was more that over the course of a season a title-winning side will rarely go off the boil for any significant length of time.

[AgentDaleCooper]

it's by far the biggest individual game of the season. taken in context of the season as a whole, however, it's not hugely significant in terms of our objectives - i.e. compared to securing promotion. in short, i hope we win (obviously), and will absolutely love it if we do (obviously), and will be gutted if we loose (obviously)...but i'll get over it, because in the long run it might remove a distraction from our promotion push, which is of almost existential importance.

[Keith_M]

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Be good to win it, but having got the cup hoodoo off our backs it's a lot less important than last season's game would be my take on it. Promotion has to be the priority this time round.

Surely the two aren't mutually exclusive.

[Smartie]

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That's true and it was testimony to Stubbs and his players that they were able to bounce back like that. Perhaps there was an element of destiny at work there when it came to the Scottish Cup, but my point was more that over the course of a season a title-winning side will rarely go off the boil for any significant length of time.

I agree with the point you make about us bouncing back from defeats/ bad performances last season.

It isn't really good enough to point at the once or twice we bounced back and good a good result in the next game. We knew there was little margin for error with Rangers in the league and we underperformed in the league far too often. The run of results in February/ March really was inexcusable. I hate to sound like Peter Houston, but a club with our budget should not have been making such heavy weather of games at Alloa and Dumbarton, or losing 3-0 at home to Morton. The failure to brush off any one of these awful results without following it up with an equally bad result was our undoing during that period. We have no divine right to win 4 or 5-0 every week like some seem to think, but we should expect to be able to grind out wins.

One of the reasons I like Lennon is because he knows what it takes (like Giggs and Manchester United) to win a Championship. Home draws against Ayr United happen to all Championship winning teams, as long as they bounce back. When United went ahead of us at Christmas, Neil Lennon was probably the calmest person at Easter Road.

[iwasthere1972]

Who are these two people who aren't bothered?

Yams?

[Mr White]

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I agree with the point you make about us bouncing back from defeats/ bad performances last season.

It isn't really good enough to point at the once or twice we bounced back and good a good result in the next game. We knew there was little margin for error with Rangers in the league and we underperformed in the league far too often. The run of results in February/ March really was inexcusable. I hate to sound like Peter Houston, but a club with our budget should not have been making such heavy weather of games at Alloa and Dumbarton, or losing 3-0 at home to Morton. The failure to brush off any one of these awful results without following it up with an equally bad result was our undoing during that period. We have no divine right to win 4 or 5-0 every week like some seem to think, but we should expect to be able to grind out wins.

One of the reasons I like Lennon is because he knows what it takes (like Giggs and Manchester United) to win a Championship. Home draws against Ayr United happen to all Championship winning teams, as long as they bounce back. When United went ahead of us at Christmas, Neil Lennon was probably the calmest person at Easter Road.

I disagree. If we're talking strength to bounce back then last year's squad showed that in the cup run. The 2 games in question followed our 2 most disappointing results of the season and contributed to arguably our most significant achievement in over a century.

I think we need to put last year's league failure in perspective. In the 3 major competitions we were involved in we won one, lost out on another with a last minute goal and fell at the semi stage in the playoffs again to a last minute goal. Fighting on 3 fronts till the very end and delivering the cup. Maybe if we'd lost at starks park in the cup we would have bounced back in the league? Who knows but it's hard to make an accusation of a lack of mental strength or ability to bounce back stick against last year's team imo.

[NAE NOOKIE]

It means everything ...... I don't want to lose to these tossers at any time and Sunday is no different, the fact that we are cup holders is immaterial to me, its a derby and that should be enough motivation.

But in time honoured fashion if it was a hypothetical choice between losing on Sunday and getting promoted I would suck up a defeat, we simply must go up this season ...... if we lose on Sunday we will get over it, if we stay in this division for another season it will do far far greater damage to this club than any number of derby defeats.

[Pete]

How do I view it?

If I'm being honest, probably through a telly.

:-(

[Brooster]

Hibs need to step it up by at least 20% on Saturday's performance. And we need to pick our best players.....McGeoch and Cummings for starters.