How Hibs Women are using shock of last derby for inspiration

Three goals in ten first-half minutes from Eilidh Shore, Georgia Timms, and Monica Forsyth had Eva Olid's side comfortably in front at the interval, and substitute Jackie Richards added a late fourth to compound Hibs' misery. 

Since then, Hibs have lost just once in the league and have advanced to the semi-finals of the Sky Sports Cup. Scott is hopeful that the memory of that defeat on home turf can serve as a warning going into Sunday's televised clash. 

"We didn't see that one coming," he admitted. "We'd started well in the league, performances were good, and on the day we didn't feel we gave a good account of ourselves at all. 

"Credit to Hearts on the night; they capitalised and were ruthless enough, and it looked bad for us. It's all about our reaction. Every successful team has disappointing moments and disappointing performances, so for us as a group, it was a semi-reset and realisation that we can't afford not to turn up. And thankfully, bar one other performance, I think we've done that in the main pretty well."

That other performance was a 3-0 loss to Glasgow City on September 22. Since then, Hibs are unbeaten, including a 1-1 draw with Rangers, and have racked up some big scorelines. So too have Hearts, but Scott has resisted the temptation to make seismic changes off the back of a damaging defeat.

"I think each team is improving year on year, and when you see performances from ourselves and from Hearts, mixing it with the original top three - if you want to call it that - it just shows evolution," he explained.

"We're not doing that much differently, but having gone full-time, some of our players are now in their third season of a full-time model.

"Some players last year were in their first season, so it takes time to acclimate to that level of work and consistency of your working week, going into matches. But I think once you get there, you start to see that consistency and that's why teams like ourselves and Hearts are certainly pushing the other sides at the moment as hard as we can.

"But we're not really doing anything that different. Our building blocks have been in place for a while now, and we're adding little bits to it each season, and that allows us to perform more consistently."

Lauren Doran-Barr, who joined Hibs from Motherwell last season, has seen first-hand the positive effect of increased competition for places and insists it is helping to bring out the best in the whole squad. 

"I think it's healthy, and I think you need that to get success. It's really a long season, you need to have the squad depth to be able to compete, especially in the latter stages of the campaign. There has definitely been more competition for places, and I think that drives standards as well - everyone's pushing each other in every single training session, and every week you come in you're fighting for your place in the starting XI. It's healthy competition, and it's been good for us."

With a sizeable crop of die-hard Hibees in the dressing room - Eilidh Adams, Siobhan Hunter, Shannon Leishman, Rosie Livingstone, and Kirsten Reilly - and Joelle Murray on the coaching staff, Doran-Barr admits their passion for the club means there are no doubts about what is expected come 4.10pm on Sunday. 

"They know what it means to this football club, playing in this derby, and last time out it wasn't the outcome we wanted. I think for the girls who come from elsewhere or whatever, they really give you that motivation to go out and put in a performance, and that's what we need to do. We know it wasn't good enough last time, and we're looking to put that right this weekend."

The goals have been spread around the Hibs squad so far this season with 12 different goalscorers, including Doran-Barr, but it's the consistent form of main strikers Adams and Kathleen McGovern, who have hit 12 goals and 11 goals respectively since the last derby and which ever striker get the nod to start in Gorgie will have the other breathing down their neck, keen to make an impression and further complicate Scott's selection choices.

"When you look at a squad like ours over the last three, four, five seasons, the evolution is clear to see. We have a really competitive squad at the minute, and we genuinely could start any XI and hopefully get a good performance," Scott said.

"When we make changes or we have to try to stimulate something in the game, there are now options that maybe in the last two, three, four, five years we didn't necessarily have. Again, that's what leads to your consistency, because your competition during the week becomes more consistent.

"It's more difficult for players to be secure and predict that they'll start games. I wouldn't like to think that's in their mindset, but it is - we're human. Every player has to be on it every day, every working day. As coaches, our eyes are on them every single moment that they're in the building; how they behave, how they go about their business, and that allows us to be selective on the weekend.

"So yes; the form of my strikers gives me confidence but also a headache, albeit a good one. Having that sort of competition is really healthy. It gives us a great option to have a front line that's playing well and scoring goals. So yeah, our confidence is good at the minute.

"We know there'll be another knock one day. We just hope it's not this weekend."