Scottish Cup final referee’s stats favour Hearts

Hibs will be hoping for a change in fortune in the Scottish Cup final with Euro 2012 referee Craig Thomson in charge of Pat Fenlon’s side for the seventh time this season.

The Easter Road outfit have lost all six of the previous matches in which Thomson has been referee and conceded 12 without even scoring a goal.

Those half-dozen games include two derby defeats by Hearts at Tynecastle, the 2-0 loss last August and again in March when the Gorgie club again ran out 2-0 winners.

Thomson was also the man in the middle when Hibs lost 1-0 at home to Dunfermline in November – Colin Calderwood’s last match as manager – the 1-0 defeat by Aberdeen at Pittodrie the following month, a 5-0 hammering by Celtic at Easter Road in March and the 1-0 loss to Kilmarnock at home last month.

Thomson has refereed Hearts five times this season with the Tynecastle club winning four of them – those two derby wins, October’s victory over Celtic and a win against Inverness while the fifth match was the 1-1 draw with St Johnstone in the Cup, Paulo Sergio’s team going on to win the replay at McDiarmid Park.