Hearts not cowed by Hibs test

The Edinburgh derby, however, was the pick of the bunch and will provide another challenge for Gary Locke's youthful squad. Hearts have already beaten Hibs at Tynecastle this season and Murray, the club's former academy director, felt the players would have "no fears" about appearing at Easter Road.

"It's a big learning curve but they won the last derby so Hibs will be out for revenge," he said. "It's a great tie for Edinburgh and for the two clubs. There are probably some boys who came in a year too early but they have to play at some time. They've no fear, that's the one thing. They'll go and play anybody, anytime and anywhere. They are up for it. It's a new thing for them and they're all rising to the challenge."

With Hearts still in administration, a potentially sold-out, televised derby - with gate receipts halved - offers a much-needed boost to the club's finances. "It's as good a draw as we could have hoped for in terms of finance - that or a home tie with Hibernian, or Aberdeen with their travelling support," said David Southern, Hearts' managing director. "We haven't budgeted for cup runs so this is bonus money

as far as we are concerned. I think that this is a tournament we can afford to look at in a purely football sense rather than a financial one.

"There's no doubt that it does help but I wouldn't go as far as to say it well help speed up our exit from administration because I see that as running parallel with the day-today operations of the club. We'll certainly take a big support to Easter Road and the game may even be shown on television."

Hearts were not the only happy club after the draw. Mark McNally, the Morton assistant manager, called upon his players to prove their win over Celtic was not a flash in the pan. "We wanted a home tie to give us a better chance with seven other Premiership teams in the draw so we are delighted that

it is at Cappielow," he said.

"What we don't want after that great performance at Celtic Park

is to go out of the cup in a whimper. I hope we don't let ourselves down and be one-hit wonders. We want to compete against St Johnstone and see where it takes us."

Their visitors will be motivated by the chance of glory, though. Frazer Wright, the St Johnstone defender, admitted the prospect of winning the club's first ever major trophy has grown with both Celtic and Rangers out. "As soon as Celtic got knocked out every team thought that they have a chance of winning the cup," he said. "But we have to go to Greenock and get a win first."

Aberdeen have adopted a

similar attitude, the newly-installed favourites being asked to travel to Fir Park for a hugely testing tie.

"It's one of the toughest draws we could have got but we have been playing well away from home so we are going into it with confidence," said Michael Hector, Aberdeen's on-loan defender. "But you can't take anything for granted in the cup. It'll come down to what happens on the night."

John Rankin, too, felt his Dundee United team had been unlucky to have been drawn in Inverness.

"We were against Partick Thistle [in the last round] which was the hardest tie we could have got [with the seedings]. You look at it this time and we are probably drawn away against the toughest opponent left in the competition."

The cup remains without a sponsor but Neil Doncaster, chief executive of the Scottish Professional Football League, pictured, revealed he has not given up hope of getting one for the rest of the competition. "You don't put any time limit on it," he said. "Whenever you conclude a deal with any sponsor that is the point you unveil it. There is no reason why that might not happen at all. It takes time to put deals together and that work is ongoing. We are certainly confident in the competition as we are with the title itself.

It is important to wait for the right partner at the

right value."