HIBS have declared their decision to sell tickets directly to Rangers fans a success after selling out the allocation for the Ibrox side.

The Easter Road side followed Falkirk's lead and shunned the 5% levy the Old Firm had insisted they would need to cover the cost of selling tickets to their own fans at the start of the season.

And with a sell-out crowd predicted for Sunday's meeting between Hibs and Rangers at Easter Road, the move has worked out.

With the help of the Rangers Supporters' Association and using a postal ballot, almost 4000 tickets have been sold for the game and have allowed Hibs to buck the demands of the 5% surcharge.

Although some clubs have accepted the charge and others have increased admission prices to cover the fee, handling the process themselves seems the easiest way around the problem.

And it appears likely that Hibs will repeat the process for the visit of Celtic on December 7. It remains to be seen whether other clubs follow their example.

"We are delighted at the way things have worked out because it was a bit of a risk for us to take this on," said Ian Spence, Hibs' director of marketing and communications.

"We felt if we did it as simply as possible and publicised it as well as we could then it would work well, and so it has proved.

"We got to the point where all the tickets were sold and applications were still coming in, so we are now advising those Rangers supporters who were unsuccessful."