A crowd of more than 7,000 is expected at Tynecastle Park for this weekend’s Capital Cup.

Heart of Midlothian Women host Hibernian in the Scottish Women’s Premier League 1 looking to put some distance between them and their local rivals.

Eva Olid’s side are one point off the top in third, Hibs are four points behind Hearts in fifth in what is a congested SWPL summit.

Bayley Hutchison is one player looking to make her mark in what will be her first Edinburgh derby after netting a hattrick in last week’s 9-0 win over Dundee United.

Injury troubles have disrupted the striker’s time in Gorgie so far after her summer move from Aberdeen.

That meant she had to make do with watching on as an unused substitute when the teams met at Easter Road earlier in the season.

Hutchison stressed the importance of the matches now taking place at Tynecastle and Easter Road and how a large backing can spur on the players.

“It’s so important,” she said. “It’s a credit to both teams obviously for letting us play at two big stadiums and it’s a credit to the fans for coming out and we want to get as many fans there as possible.

“We want to show that women’s football is growing and we want to put on a good show for them.

"I think it helps us. You know, I think the fans will push us on. We'll want to try and perform in front of them or try and give them the result that they deserve and if they're coming out to see us, we want to perform well for them.

"It'll play a part but at the end of the day, if we just focus on our football, then you don't know what will happen.

“Playing Hearts v Hibs, it doesn’t get that much bigger in Edinburgh so yeah I’m excited. I’m excited to play in front of the fans, I’m excited for a big crowd, hopefully excited to get on the pitch – and if I score, even better.”

Despite the importance of getting on over your rivals, Hutchison echoed the words of her manager when talking about how Hearts go about preparing for Sunday.

"You're playing in the home stadium,” she added. “You're playing in front of a big big crowd and yeah, I think you just have to go on with it with the same mindset. It's a league game at the end of the day and we just want to get the three points.

"So I think that's our main focus is to try not to think too much about the occasion.”

The Scotland international will have done her chances of selection no harm with last weekend’s exploits, adding to the two against Montrose the game before, but is taking nothing for granted.

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Especially when injury disrupted the start of her Hearts career. “The start of the season was difficult for me,” she said. “Moving club, you want to make an impact as soon as possible, so being out injured was difficult.

“But I worked hard and I’m trying to make that impact in the team. I’m trying to keep my place in the team. I’m just trying to do well for the team, get goals, get three points and that’s the most important thing for me.

“It's important for us to get those victories, but it's going to be a different kind of game. It's not going to be a 9-0. It's going to be close.

"We're going to have to go in there with confidence if you want to get those three points."

Tickets for Sunday's 4.15pm kick-off at Tynecastle are free and can be picked up HERE