CUMMINGS AIMS TO DOWN UNITED
Star man Cummings has personal fantasy of putting Hibernian’s famous curse to bed
BEING the boyhood Hearts fan who ended Hibernian’s epic wait for Scottish Cup success sounds pretty good to Jason Cummings. This week, it has literally been the stuff of his dreams.
Making it a reality would also count as just about the ultimate act of sibling one-upmanship within the Cummings family home.
As the 20-year-old striker revealed, there are other occupants who would utterly despair at losing the right to taunt Hibs about not winning the trophy since 1902.
‘I’ve had a few dreams about winning the Scottish Cup with Hibs,’ Cummings admitted.
‘Do I score the winner? Well, I’m not sitting on the bench! I’m usually popping up in the 90th minute with one into the top corner.
‘I would love to win the Cup with Hibs. It would be funny to take the medal back into my house with my brothers and put it on their walls — they wouldn’t be happy with that. It would be a dream.
‘I’ve got two older brothers — Ross and Dean — who are big Hearts fans. Every time we play them, they tell me they hope I can score, but that Hearts win 3-2.
‘They have also put it up on Twitter that, if I score, my Xbox is going out the window — so I came back with no Xbox after scoring the winner in the 1-0 game.’
That goal settled February’s fifthround replay against Hearts, with Inverness then overcome to set up today’s semi-final against Dundee United at Hampden.
It was far from the first time that Cummings had irked his brothers. Like them, he had grown up a supporter of the Tynecastle club, playing in their youth ranks before being released at the age of 16.
A photograph of a much younger Cummings doing the ‘5-1 gesture’ — a reference to the trouncing of Hibs in the 2012 Scottish Cup Final — can still be found on the internet.
Regretting it would be pointless. Cummings has never sought to hide his past allegiances. And it’s not as if he hasn’t proved a persistent pain to Hearts since donning a green-and-white jersey.
‘It’s not a secret that I was brought up a Hearts fan,’ Cummings said. ‘I was brought up in Gorgie and went to Tynecastle High School and most of my family are Hearts fans, so I was the same.
‘When I was younger, I always thought about playing for Hearts. When they let me go, I was thinking: “What can I do to get one back at them?” So I thought: “I’ll go to Hibs — and score four consecutive goals against them in the derby!”’
The most recent of those provided a high point from which Alan Stubbs’ side have since descended at a pretty alarming speed.
Hope of automatic promotion vanished in the space of three successive defeats as February turned to March. And Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw with Falkirk now leaves Hibs facing an uphill battle to finish second in the Championship ahead of the play-offs.
That result made it just two wins from their last 11 outings, but the bare statistics don’t tell the full story of their woe.
Two goals from Cummings had the Easter Road outfit comfortably ahead against the 10 men of Falkirk in the 86th minute. That they somehow failed to see out the win provided yet another example of spurning a positive position.
Indeed, the phrase ‘Hibsed it’ has now entered Scottish football parlance to describe those who encounter such a deflating scenario. Think Jordan Spieth at the Masters last weekend.
‘I’ve obviously seen it because I am on Twitter, Hibsed it and that chat,’ Cummings said. ‘It doesn’t bother me and I don’t think it fazes the boys, either.
‘What people on Twitter and the like say doesn’t drive us on at all. Because it’s coming from people who don’t have a clue what they are talking about.
‘People behind Twitter accounts could either be wee laddies who don’t have a clue, or just old guys who haven’t really had a career or anything. With things like that, you just have to laugh.’
Cummings likes to laugh. A smile rarely left his face as he met the media at Hibs’ training ground in East Mains. His comic timing can be as good as that inside a penalty box. The young man who once described himself as having ‘the touch of an angel’ isn’t lacking in self-confidence. But he readily accepts there have been times when the joke is on him.
An extraordinary miss from point-blank range in last month’s defeat to Raith Rovers was the premier case in point. It didn’t help that the game was live on TV.
‘You either laugh or you cry,’ he reflected. ‘I probably should have cried, but you’ve just got to laugh. It was a sitter.
‘It can’t get any worse than that in my career, so I’m happy to get it out of the way when I’m young.
‘It wasn’t as easy as it looked, it was hard to hit the bar from there... if anything I should be getting a wee bit of credit for that! It was as though I had been cursed. Like one of those voodoo dolls.
‘Honestly, though, I was gutted. I didn’t speak to my maw for the whole week. I was upstairs watching Peaky Blinders. I was staying off Twitter, too, because everyone kept reminding me about it.
‘I’m my own biggest critic. I expect to score in every game and, if I don’t, I’ll be raging for a few days.
‘But I look at the big picture. I had a good season last year and I’ve already scored two more this season (23) with a few games left to play.’
Cummings returns to Hampden today anxious to leave the place in a far better frame of mind than last month’s agonising defeat to Ross County in the League Cup Final.
Should Hibs progress to face either Celtic or Rangers on May 21, their shot at ending a 114-year Scottish Cup hoodoo could be sandwiched in between two legs of the play-off final.
So, if he could have only one, would Cummings take promotion or the Cup?
‘I think I would probably take promotion… no, I’m not sure actually,’ he replied. ‘I would take both, if that’s an answer. I wouldn’t like to pick.
‘I know the history with Hibs not winning the Cup since 1902, so I reckon the fans would possibly take the Scottish Cup. But the main aim of all the staff and players at the start of the season was to get promoted.
‘It would be a good wee poll for the fans on Twitter. I think the fans would pick the Scottish Cup… I think. I would probably take promotion. Possibly…’