By Tam McManus

Copyright dailyrecord

There’s a lot of noise belching out around Gorgie right now but let me tell you something ahead of Saturday’s mouth-watering Edinburgh derby. Nothing tastes sweeter as a Hibee than knocking the Jam Tarts right off their perch. All the talk of Hearts splitting the Old Firm and challenging for the title – after just SIX games – should have Hibs salivating at the prospect of getting their teeth into their rivals. I wish the current team could see what big John Hughes was like in the Tynecastle away dressing room in the minutes before kick off. Bursting bubbles? He’d be bursting blood vessels to get out there and torn into Hearts. Yogi is obviously a massive Hibs fan and these occasions were the biggest of his season. He used to eat Fisherman’s Friends like sweeties before a game and got through about three bottles of smelling salts for derbies! He’d go out there high as a kite but boy did he lead by example. He was ripped, pumped up, and you just knew walking out there was no way you could let the man down. Even in training before these ones he’d throw you about like a wet trackie but in enemy territory he became an absolute warrior. I remember he pulled me aside as a youngster before my first derby at Tynecastle and said: “Be brave on the ball. Don’t bottle it. Don’t hide out there because it’s not just the fans who will want to batter you it’ll be me!” That’s what it means to the fans and this is exactly what the experienced guys in the current team need to be saying to the new signings who are about to get their first taste of craziness. There will be a few tackles that will come as a culture shock for the foreigners coming into it put it that way. I’ve felt both the good and the very bad in these games. When it comes to taking Hearts down a notch nothing was better than the game early in the 2003-04 season when we beat them with 10 men. Hearts fancied themselves and definitely thought they were going to run over the top of us. They had seasoned pros like Alan Maybury, Steven Pressley , Andy Webster, Paul Hartley and Mark De Vries. But we had a really young team. Our front three was myself, Derek Riordan and Scott Brown . At that point we were just kids. I was the oldest at 23. Grant Brebner got sent off after about half an hour and we were right up against it. But then Garry O’Connor came off the bench and scored right at the death to nick it 1-0. That was Bobby Williamson’s first derby win and he gave us the next day off. Suffice to say the win bonus got blown within hours on one of our legendary nights out. But I’ve been on the other end of a couple of sore ones at Tynecastle, particularly when Mark De Vries scored four in a 5-1 drubbing in 2002. I remember going back to Easter Road to get our cars that evening and there was a big gathering of Hibs fans waiting to lay into us. We got absolute pelters. We got off the bus and they absolutely slaughtered us in a way you could never print in a family paper. I was young and that was the moment the depth of the feeling about the derby in Edinburgh really hit home. It never changes in that regard. And Saturday’s clash has all the added spice of Hearts being fancied as title challengers and BOTH sides being unbeaten so far. Listen, the pressure’s on Hearts in this game. When you’re being spoken about as potential league champions and splitting the Old Firm then this is probably a game you’re expecting to win. But this is a real opportunity for Hibs. They are the ones in possession of the capital crown at the moment remember after winning home and away in this fixture last season and not losing any of the meetings. Hearts have only won one of the last eight meetings and haven’t won a derby at Tynecastle for two and a half years. Martin Boyle and the longer serving guys in that dressing room will be telling their team mates that they’re not used to losing this fixture. I really fancy another Hibs win. In the middle of the park I think they’re better than Hearts. I think they’ve got more creativity. I’ve certainly been impressed with Alexandros Kyziridis and Claudio Braga for Hearts while Lawrence Shankland’s playing well and looking dangerous again. But at the same time, Hibs have Martin Boyle and Kieron Bowie, two international players. Defensively, I don’t think there’s much in it either. That clean sheet at Celtic Park on Saturday will be absolutely massive for Hibs and Grant Hanley was immense. He’s another who will relish this weekend’s clash. I know he’s played in the Premier League and in the Norwich-Ipswich derby but even Hanley, with all his experience, is in for a bit of a shock when Saturday arrives. So there’s individual battles all over the park to be won. Hanley v Shankland. Chaiwa v Devlin. Bowie v Findlay. Maybe the one in the dug out between McInnes and Gray will be the deciding factor. One thing is for sure, it’s going to be electric, 5.45pm on Saturday night is going to be mental because they’ll be bevying all day. So, it’s going to be wild. I don’t miss much about football now but I certainly would miss walking out into that atmosphere.