LEVEIN: DERBY GAME OF HUGE IMPORTANCE

HEARTS manager Craig Levein believes the Edinburgh derby i s as keenly fought as any other.

Hibs head coach Neil Lennon this week claimed he enjoyed a less intense and fraught build-up to the matches and observed it was a “lot tamer” than the Glasgow derby.

But Levein said ahead of t o n i g h t ’s P r e m i e r s h i p encounter in Leith: “The last time we were down there when he did his lap of honour, he looked like he was enjoying himself, so . . .

“It’s a derby match and you can’t say one set of supporters love their club any more t han another support.

“The feelings are the same for a derby match between the Old Firm and for a derby between the Dundee teams and t he teams in Edinburgh. It’s just there is a bigger crowd at the Old Firm. It’s the same thing.

“It’s always a massive game, I love this fixture.”

While Levein is steeped in the encounter following more than two decades with Hear ts as player, director and manager, the Jambos’ January l oan signing Joquaim Adao feels he is quickly up to speed with what the game means.

“We had a derby in Switzerland but it wasn’t a derby in the same city, it was a region,” the Sion player said. “It’s not the same.

“Here I know the rivalry is very fierce between Hearts and Hibs. I was in a taxi with my family and the taxi man said he was a Hibs fan and: ‘Tomorrow I kill you!’

“It’s not just the football, it’s all the people, and that is nice.”