Hibs finally win at Hampden over Hearts

A 2-1 scoreline doesn't sound seismic on paper. For Hibernian, it is. This fixture at the national stadium has been a graveyard for Hibs hopes for years, a stat trotted out every time the two clubs met there, and every time it got worse. Not anymore.

The win sends Hibernian through to the League Cup final, where Rangers will be waiting. It's a final the Easter Road club will take regardless of history, but doing it by going through Hearts, at Hampden, of all places, gives this one an extra layer that a routine semi-final win wouldn't have.

A first win for Reedijk too

There's a second story running underneath this one. Marink Reedijk picked up his first win as Hibernian manager in this match, and it's hard to script a better one than an Edinburgh derby victory that books a cup final. Early tenures live and die on moments like this, the ones fans point back to later as the game that set the tone.

For a new manager still working out his squad, his structure, his relationships with the dressing room, a result like this buys goodwill that patient league form alone wouldn't. Hibernian fans don't need convincing that beating Hearts at Hampden matters. Reedijk now has that in the bank before he's even had a full month in the job.

What it means for Hearts

For Hearts, it's the sharper end of the sting. Losing to your city rivals in any context stings. Losing in a semi-final, at Hampden, in a fixture where history had always sat in their favour until this exact afternoon, is the kind of result that gets replayed on social media for years whenever the derby comes round again.

Rangers up next

Hibernian now turn to a League Cup final against Rangers, a different scale of challenge entirely. But however that one goes, the bus back to Edinburgh after this semi-final had something on it that no Hibs team before had managed: a win over Hearts at the national stadium, finally on the right side of the ledger.