Boyle on Socceroos pal Devlin, his deadly derby rival

Martin Boyle insists he understands why Hearts nuisance Cammy Devlin gets “stick” for his style of play.

- by John Greechan

But the Socceroos star has been seriously impressed with the progress of a player who hopes to join him in the Australia squad at next summer's World Cup.

That doesn't mean, of course, that the stand-in Hibs skipper will be so much as nodding in the direction of his compatriot at Easter Road on Saturday. Derby rules are derby rules-and they ALWAYS override national allegiances, once game day rolls around.

Devlin has been one of the standout performers for Derek McInnes during his team's ascent to the summit of the Scottish Premiership, the battling midfielder adding a degree of composure to his natural spikey style. If Hibs are to bag a home win at the weekend, they'll need to counter the threat of the 27-year-old midfielder, yet to win a full cap for his country despite being called up into Tony Popovic's squad.

Boyle, who has been watching Devlin’s development with one eye on next year’s World Cup group games against the USA, Paraguay and a late qualifier to be confirmed after playoffs, said: “Yeah, really impressed. He’s a fantastic young player.

“Obviously he gets stick for doing what he does, but he’s effective at what he does. And obviously as a teammate on the national team, we get along really well. But when we're club level, we don’t speak or anything like that.