JOHN COLLINS didn't enjoy the best of luck as a player in Edinburgh derbies, a mere three wins in 24 attempts, so there was little doubt he was going to celebrate this one.
Punching the air with delight, the new Hibs boss strode onto the Easter Road pitch on the final whistle to greet each and everyone of his players with a hug.
And who could blame him? In only his second match in charge of his old club he'd seen hi
s players totally outclass their Capital rivals.
Rarely will you see such a one-sided derby decided by so narrow a margin but, as Collins observed afterwards: "One was enough."
One was certainly enough to bury a dismal Hearts outfit torn by internal unrest – pre-match rumours suggesting that French star Julien Brellier had stormed out of the away dressing room and into a taxi on learning that his services were not required.
Hearts' problems, of course, were of no concern to Collins, the Hibs boss keen to focus on the fact it was not so much that the side from the other side of the city had been poor, but that his players had been "fantastic" to a man.
He said: "I thought we played ever so well. We started the game well, had a few near misses. It should have been more but one was enough to put us into the semi-finals.
"I thoroughly enjoyed it, my second game in charge, a quarter-final against Hearts, it was special, and you have to enjoy those moments."
Collins' enjoyment might have been enhanced had Hibs been able to add to Rob Jones' first-half goal, the towering centre-half lashing the ball high into the net after the Hearts central defenders Steven Pressley and Christophe Berra both missed Merouane Zemmama's corner and goalkeeper Craig Gordon could only palm away Chris Killen's shot.
Gordon kept his side in the game with a superb, instinctive save seven minutes later, standing his ground as Scott Brown and Zemmama played a delightful one-two only for the former's parting shot to clip the outside of Gordon's right boot and go wide.
Memories of how Hibs had been unable to hang onto a one-goal lead were all too vivid for the green-and-white army, conscious of how they'd managed to surrender a two-goal advantage to their rivals at the same venue a couple of weeks before.
A one-goal lead is, of course, always a precarious position to be in but, if truth be told, Hibs were rarely in danger, Hearts failing to put one shot on target in the entire 90 minutes while it took them an astonishing 68 minutes to claim the first of their three corners.
All this in the knowledge that the confidence of Hibs goalkeeper Zibi Malkowski was fragile following his blunders in the previous derby.
Apart from one early mix-up between Shelton Martis and Jones as they went for Jose Goncalves' long throw, there was nothing to trouble Hibs.
Indeed, full-backs Steven Whittaker and David Murphy spent much of the match as auxiliary wingers, charging forward when the occasion presented itself as they stretched Hearts time and again.
And if Hibs were handicapped by the early loss of current Jambo Michael Stewart, hurt in a clash with Marius Zaliukas, the enforced change was seamless, Guillaume Beuzelin stepping into midfield to orchestrate proceedings. But to Collins his players were heroes all. He said: "I am proud of them, they were fantastic. We had a game plan we had been working on in training, they stuck to it and everyone got their rewards."
Had Hearts actually played so poorly? Not to Collins mind, the Hibs boss insisting the gulf between the sides on the night was down to what his players did rather than what the opposition did not do.
He said: "We made it very difficult, as soon as they got possession we hunted in packs. When you press together as a unit then inevitably they give the ball back to you. For me the team played fantastically, all of them."
Hibs, of course, went on to beat St Johnstone 3-1 after extra time in the last four, before clinching the Cup with a stunning 5-1 win over Kilmarnock in the final at Hampden.
Hibs: Malkowski, Whittaker, Martis, Jones, Murphy, Scott Brown, Stewart (Beuzelin 14), Thomson, Zemmama, Sproule (Fletcher 73), Killen.
Hearts: Gordon, Goncalves, Berra, Pressley, Tall, Neilson (Barasa 55), Mikoliunas (Mole 66), Aguiar, Hartley, Zaliukas (Makela 83), Velicka.
