Robbie Neilson tells Hibs chief Ron Gordon an early Edinburgh derby is 'great' as Hearts boss weighs in on fixture row

Robbie Neilson insists he loves an early Edinburgh Derby after Hibs chief Ron Gordon slammed the scheduling. And the bullish Hearts boss is happy to embrace any favourites tag placed upon his team ahead of the showdown against their city rivals.

Easter Road chairman Gordon let rip at the SPFL bosses and called their date-choice for the Premiership round two crunch in Leith as “absurd.” Neilson doesn’t agree and savours getting stuck in so early as it offers massive incentive to his troops and a huge potential springboard for the campaign aheads.

He said: “I think it’s great, to be honest. You want to get a Derby, to win this, to get some momentum. I look forward to it. I think when the fixtures come out, they are the first ones you look for. To get it early is great. If we win this on Sunday, it sets us up well for the coming games as well, so the sooner the better I think.”

Asked if he surprised by Gordon’s comments, Neilson added: “I quite like them coming early in the season. In my experience they usually come early.

“It gives you a target in pre-season, you build up to it as it is early in the campaign. It gets it over with, you want to build momentum, there’s nothing better than winning it.

“You want to get your first win of the season, we have both done that. If you win the derby it gives you that push.”

Hearts are unbeaten against Hibs in six games over almost three years and are again being touted as favourites to triumph. Neilson insists his troops should relish such expectation and said: “I would take being favourites every week if I could.

“When you play at Hearts, you want to go into these games as favourites. It’s part of being here you have to win games.

“You have to be able to handle that. We want to