SHAUN DENNIS could count on John Hughes the player to show a ferocious appetite for the Edinburgh derby – and he has no doubt Yogi will adopt the same approach as manager.
Hibs make the short trip across the city on Saturday for the first Edinburgh derby of the season, with their rivals struggling to find their form in the league.
Hearts are eighth place in the SPL but Hughes has already insisted his side – curren
tly in second spot – should not be labelled as favourites to win the match.
While Hughes featured in seven derby matches as a player, Saturday will be his first as a manager and he'll be desperate to get off on the right foot.
Dennis, who partnered Hughes in central defence during the famous "Millennium Derby" victory of December 1999, saw at first hand the preparation the current Hibs manager put in before any match.
And, having witnessed Hughes' pre-derby enthusiasm as a player, he believes the current Hibs squad can expect more of the same from their boss this weekend.
Recalling their time as Easter Road team-mates, Dennis said: "To be honest, I don't know who was the daftest, him or me, but the one thing you can't take away from him was how professional he was.
"He liked a laugh and a joke but he always looked after himself and worked himself hard in training and in games, you could always count on him to give you 100 per cent.
"If you were looking for someone to gee up the dressing-room then he was the man to do it because he was hyper all the time.
"But that kind of attitude wasn't just there for the derby games, it was there even if you were playing a team like Arbroath or someone from one of the lower divisions.
"He gave it everything, no matter who we were up against.
"He always had that professionalism and he was always looking to improve himself so I think that, although there was that laughing and joking side to him, he was always going to be involved in football long-term in management or coaching. There would be silly wee things that he had done in a game that he wasn't pleased with at the end of the 90 minutes and, instead of forgetting about them like a lot of players would, he would go home or back to the training pitch to try to work on them for the next few days.
"I don't think that's a bad thing and I think that he will be looking for his players to have that same kind of attitude as he showed as a player."
The pair made up an imposing defensive partnership and perhaps their most memorable match together was that 3-0 thrashing of Hearts at Tynecastle as the country prepared to celebrate the arrival of the Millennium.
Dirk Lehmann, Franck Sauzee and a young Kenny Miller scored the goals that rocked the Jambos on their home ground and sparked wild celebrations among the Hibs fans.
The Hibs team that day also included tha likes of Russell Latapy, Mixu Paatelainen and Grant Brebner and Dennis belives that the overall performance back then was the pinnacle of his and Hughes' defensive partnership.
"That was probably the best game that we played together for Hibs," said Dennis, pictured below. "At that time, Hearts had a good squad, they had a lot of attacking players in their side, Stephane Adam, Juanjo, Colin Cameron and Scott Severin.
"But we had been doing well and we had Kenny Miller up front, he scored the third goal for us in the last couple of minutes and Dirk Lehmann and big Franck had given us the lead at half-time. Our attacking players did well and took their chances when they got them but the overall performance that day was brilliant and we deserved our win.
"It's certainly one that will stick in my mind."
Dennis believes that the atmosphere created in the dressing-room at that time helped to boost the players' confidence levels and spur them onto victory – although he admits that he fell foul of one or two practical jokes in his time too.
He added: "To be fair, we had a really good dressing-room at that time, we had a lot of good players in our side and quite a few of them were real characters.
"You never got a minute's peace because there were so many jokers in there. Everyone thought that Franck Sauzee was the quiet man but he was just as bad as the rest of them. I had not long bought a greenhouse and Franck told me that the best way to encourage the vegetables to grow was to bury a dead rabbit next to them.
"When the place was starting to smell a couple of months later and nothing had grown, I went back to Franck to ask him what to do and he couldn't stop laughing, he couldn't believe that I'd actually done it."
The story of Hughes' Capital clashes as a playerSIGNED by Hibs on 1 November, 1996 for a stint that lasted until 31 May, 2000, John Hughes played in seven Edinburgh derby matches ...
16 November, 1996: Hearts 0 Hibs 0: The tough-tackling Easter Road stopper was sent packing on his derby debut after a clash with Hearts striker Stephane Paille. His red card pushed him over the disciplinary limit and he was banned for a further three matches.
30 August, 1997: Hibs 0 Hearts 1: Hibs skipper Hughes passed a late fitness test but Jim Duffy's side lost out to Neil McCann's seventh-minute strike.
8 November, 1997: Hearts 2 Hibs 0: The Jambos clocked up their 100th league victory over their city counterparts thanks to goals from John Robertson, the hammer of Hibs and Angolan substitute Jose Quitongo.
11 April, 1998: Hibs 2 Hearts 1: Kevin Harper's first goal of the season secured the points in a rip-roaring affair. Hibs striker Barry Lavety claimed the game's first goal before John Robertson stepped off the bench to claim his 27th derby goal with his very first touch of the ball, curling home a free-kick.
19 December, 1999: Hearts 0 Hibs 3: "Perhaps 3-0 flattered us a bit but there was only going to be one winner," said a grinning Hughes after victory in this, "The Millenium Derby", won thanks to goals from Dirk Lehmann, Franck Sauzee and Kenny Miller.
18 March, 2000: Hibs 3 Hearts 1: Ex-Hibee Darren Jackson put Hearts ahead at Easter Road but Russell Latapy hauled Hibs level before the interval with a superb strike and it was the home side who dominated the second half. Franck Sauzee put them ahead on the hour mark with a looping header and, five minutes from the end, Mixu Paatelainen bundled home Hibs' third.
21 May, 2000: Hearts 2 Hibs 1: Yogi was unable to bow out of his playing career at Easter Road with a derby-day win as Hearts won thanks to goals from Juanjo and Gary McSwegan while Mixu Paatelainen pulled one back.
