DerbY wins usually come down to desire, which perhaps makes this last Edinburgh encounter of the season so hard to predict.

The home side, with points and pride at stake, face visiting players keen to secure starting places in their team for the William Hill Scottish Cup final on May 26.

"If people play, so be it," said Hearts defender Jamie Hamill, responding to the possibility that the visitors, with one eye on their Hampden meeting against Celtic, may leave out some personnel.

"They won't be asking for a rest. I wouldn't be, I'm never happy when I'm left out. They've got a cup final but we'll be out to do our job – and if that means kicking somebody, so be it.

"It'll probably be in the back of their minds and that might give us a wee added boost, if Pat Fenlon is thinking about the cup final. Maybe the players will be thinking about it as well, but when you're talking about a derby I'm sure they'll all be wanting to play in it.

"We're favourites going into the game on form, and the gaffer has us fired up, so hopefully we can take that into the derby and it'll be enough. Our fans won't want to see them going into the cup final on form, definitely not. The fans have been amazing, they've turned out in numbers, so hopefully we can get it right for them and the gaffer."

The gaffer is a term Gary Locke still uses when addressing Jim Jefferies, the man once mistakenly believed by some to be his father-in-law, such was the connection between them since Locke was made Hearts captain at the age of 20, via spells at Bradford City and Kilmarnock, and then back at Tynecastle.

Locke returned to the club he has supported since childhood as first-team coach, remaining through the departures of Jefferies, Scottish Cup winner Paulo Sergio and, lastly, John McGlynn, before being handed the managerial reins himself.

It was then, less than two months ago, that Locke attempted to move from being the friendly conduit between squad and management to a more stand-off role.

"Being called the gaffer myself has taken a bit of getting used to," he said. "But when you are in charge you have to start the way you mean to go on, even though some of my backroom staff are struggling to call me gaffer at times. I'm taking a few quid off of Comber (goalkeeping coach Alan Combe) in fines at the minute. It was a quick learning curve but I'm really enjoying it.

"As a coach it was a bit different because you could get in among the boys and see what was happening. As the manager you can't be as close to players. But I still feel you've got to have a good relationship with them and I feel that, so far, I've done that. The results have picked up a little bit as well.

"That's the most important thing. It doesn't matter what type of relationship the manager's got with the players, it's all about winning games."