Hibs boss Neil Lennon is relishing the prospect of another Edinburgh derby and wants his players to earn the right to express themselves against Hearts.

Lennon said his players did not need any lifting after losing the League Cup semi-final against Celtic on Saturday, nor did he have to be told about the importance of bouncing back against Hearts.

Having plenty of experience of the Glasgow derby, Lennon had his first taste of the capital rivalry last season and believes there will be battles to be won before his team can get the ball down and play.

"I really enjoyed the two games last year," he said. "Whether we would have won them or not, the atmosphere was fantastic and the rivalry is set in stone. So you want to be a part of that.

"The players know what it means to the supporters. You don't want them to leave anything out there on the pitch, just give their all and play well."

He added: "I don't think we've got what we've deserved [recently] due to the performances and the quality of the football that we're playing.

"Hopefully that's going to come and it would be nice to come tomorrow night. But we have to, like all games, earn the right to play.

"That means win your individual battles, your team battles and then try and play your football after that."

Hibs have one point from their last two league matches and lost on Saturday in the Legaue Cup but Lennon took into account the level of opposition and felt he could be more than satisfied with performance levels.

"We've had Celtic, Aberdeen and Celtic in the last three games and we have performed very, very well in all the games," he said.

"We haven't looked below par or looked the lesser team in any of the games, really.

"We've set a really good standard even though we probably haven't got what we deserved."