Crisis club Hearts are hoping to give their beleaguered fans some respite from the gloom surrounding Tynecastle by defeating Hibernian in the first Edinburgh derby of the season on Sunday.

Hearts have started the season with a 15-point deduction and a transfer embargo as a punishment for entering administration with debts totalling £28.4million (32.9 million euros) in the summer.

With the club facing possible liquidation, Hearts manager Gary Locke has been left with a threadbare squad with stars such as Darren Barr, Andy Webster, Mehdi Taouil, Marius Zaliukas and John Sutton all departing Tynecastle.

However, the remaining Hearts players put in a good performance in their narrow 1-0 defeat to St Johnstone last week and gave their support some hope that a miracle escape from relegation from the Scottish Premiership could be possible.

Hearts winger Jamie Walker, one of the youngsters who has been given his opportunity in the first team because of the crisis, knows the derby could be his side's most important match of the season in terms of the morale boost it could give them.

"Edinburgh derbies are always good games but I think we just need to worry about ourselves," said Walker.

"Hibs lost on Sunday as well. It's a massive game, probably our biggest game of the season. We'll have a huge crowd behind us at Tynecastle and everyone is looking forward to it.

"Picking up points at home is a must. We are looking to win most of our games at Tynecastle and also pick up a few points on the road as well. That's the only way to close that gap and get closer to the other teams in the league.

"That's what it's going to take, every game is a cup final. We need to start picking up points quickly because every game we play is one less opportunity to get points and make up ground.

"We want points on the board as quickly as possible and that starts on Sunday."

Hibernian had been expected to go into the first derby of the season as overwhelming favourites but the Easter Road club have problems of their own.

Pat Fenlon's side have had a terrible start to the new season having lost all three of their competitive matches, which included a record 9-0 aggregate loss to Malmo in their Europa League qualifier, and head to Tynecastle needing a result to potentially save their manager's job.

Despite the despair surrounding their recent performances new Hibs signing Rowan Vine hopes to return from Tynecastle with a win that could kick-start their season.

"It's a good opportunity, the boys are confident and they want to go there, be positive, get the win and so get our season up and running," Vine said.

"Then again, we'd want to win regardless of who the opposition might have been. I'm careful about labelling Sunday as a must-win game because people will take it out of context, but a derby is always a must-win match."

Elsewhere on Saturday, table-toppers Inverness Caledonian Thistle are away to Dundee United while Ross County host promoted Partick Thistle with both sides looking to get their first win of the season.

Motherwell and Aberdeen meet at Fir Park on Sunday while Kilmarnock entertain St Johnstone at Rugby Park.

Champions Celtic are not in action after being given permission to play a glamour friendly with English giants Liverpool in Dublin on Saturday.

Fixtures (1400 GMT otherwise stated)