Ex-Hearts pair Karipidis and Aguiar are doing champion in Cyprus

With just four games left, Omonia are currently four points clear of Anorthosis Famagusta and a further four ahead of bitter rivals APOEL, who drew 2-2 away to Chelsea in this season's Champions League.

However, it hasn't all been plain sailing for Karipidis and Aguiar, who both moved to Cyprus last summer after playing instrumental roles in helping Hearts finish third under Csaba Laszlo last season.

The duo were regular starters throughout the first half of the campaign, but since the turn of the year they have been plagued by injury problems.

Having been sidelined since early January, Karipidis's fortunes took a turn for the better when he made only his second appearance in three months as a late substitute in the 1-1 draw at home to Anorthosis on Sunday. The Greek now hopes to play his part in what promises to be an exhilarating run-in.

However, for Aguiar, things don't look as promising. Like Karipidis, a close friend of his during his time at Tynecastle, the Portuguese was a fixture of the Omonia side in the first half of the campaign. But since getting injured in December, he has managed only two substitute appearances and has undergone surgery that means he won't kick a ball again this season. The Evening News attempted to talk to Karipidis about life with the surprise Cypriot league leaders, but unfortunately the club's sport director has implemented a ban on players speaking to the media until the season is over.

Nonetheless, the Greek – one of the nicest guys you could hope to come across and still with strong feelings for Hearts – revealed he is happy to be fit again and excited about the run-in. He also made a point of asking how things are going at Hearts, but had clearly already done his homework as he knew they had made the top six.

In Cyprus, there is also a 'split', but it seems far more sensible and fair than the controversial, lop-sided set-up we have here in Scotland. In what is a 14-team league, each team plays each other twice. After those 26 games, the bottom two are automatically relegated, while the other 12 teams split into three groups of four and play each other home and away in a round-robin format. It means that Omonia – who haven't won the title since 2003 – have to play their three main championship rivals twice each in the closing six games, thus making for maximum excitement.

If Omonia, who also have former Celtic striker Maciej Zurawski in their ranks, can hold on to top spot throughout their remaining four games, it will see them equal APOEL's record of 20 league titles.

They would then enter the second qualifying round of the Champions League, where Karipidis and Aguiar would hope to grace the competition for the first time since they both played for Hearts against AEK Athens in 2006.