Capital's New Year derby already on verge of sell-out

THE first Edinburgh New Year's Day derby in 13 years is set to be a sell-out after Hearts announced they have sold all their tickets for the visit of fierce rivals Hibs.

Despite the match being over a month away, the Tynecastle club's fans have wasted little time in snapping up briefs for the clash, with Hearts set to be roared on by 13,800 supporters in the home end. Hibs are handling their own allocation of 3,500, and there is not expected to be a spare seat inside the stadium come kick-off.

Meanwhile, Hibs manager Colin Calderwood has refused to use his lack of strikers as an excuse for Saturday's goalless encounter with St Johnstone. With Derek Riordan suspended due to the fall-out from his Edinburgh derby red card and Darryl Duffy and Valdas Trakys both injured, Calderwood was left with only Colin Nish available to him at the weekend.

Nish was eventually replaced by centre-half David Stephens, but Calderwood insisted the blame for his team's lack of penetration lay away from his lack of forwards. He said: "It was a tough afternoon and not a game where I think we produced what we can produce. There was a certain amount of nervousness in the performance.

"The (striker issue) was not the problem. If we could have been a bit more consistent with our passing then we would have had a better performance - with one or two strikers. That's no excuse."