A derby time of year

Wondering what to blip indoors tonight, I heard the sound of the crowd from Tynecastle, a short distance from our house over the railway line. It's the Edinburgh derby tonight, Hearts v Hibs. From what I've seen online it's been a turgid affair so far, but it prompted me to have a rummage in the old programmes archive once again to look for 'derby day' programmes. Generally 'derbies' are matches between two teams in the same city, but sometimes there is some geographical leeway and fierce rivalries can develop between 'local' teams. I say 'local' in inverted commas as quite a few of these old programmes from my football watching heyday in the mid-1980s, and more recently, are from the 'New Firm' clashes between Dundee United and Aberdeen. Two teams over sixty miles apart. In fact there is a programme from a United - Aberdeen game thirty years ago today. Aberdeen won 3-0 but United had the last laugh that season, winning the league in the 'real' derby at Dens Park (also in this collection, but I've talked about that game before). There are a number of Dundee - Dundee United programmes here, but even the one dated at New Year was, from memory, played later in the year having been postponed. There are a couple of Edinburgh derbies, one each from Easter Road and Tynecastle, from the late-1980s after I'd moved to Edinburgh. And a few more cup semi-finals played at Tynecastle but featuring United and Dundee or United and Aberdeen. The most recent in 2008 when United won 4-1 and I was there in corporate hospitality through my mate A. A trio of Angus derbies, from Forfar, Brechin and Arbroath and a couple of London derbies from Stamford Bridge complete this little collection.

Just seen it finished goal-less at Tynie. A Jambo of my acquaintance has posted a comment wondering how on earth they didn't win, but he may well be biased!