Stubbs so sure Leith men can lift themselves
HIBS head coach Alan Stubbs will today begin the process of trying to lift his shattered players for Saturday’s Scottish Cup Final against Rangers. But the former Celtic and Everton defender, who gave the squad the weekend off, insists the enormity of the Hampden showdown should be enough to inspire them this week. The Easter Road outfit were dealt a crushing blow on Friday when they were condemned to a third straight season in the Championship after losing the play-off semi-final 5-4 on aggregate to Falkirk. The manner of the tortuous loss was also hard to stomach after Bob McHugh scored with the last kick of the game in a pulsating 3-2 second-leg win for the Bairns. Both the players and the coaching staff were visibly stunned as they trudged up the
tunnel at the Falkirk Stadium, and Stubbs will now attempt to raise his squad’s spirits when they return to training at their East Mains base this morning. ‘They’ve had a chance to get it out of their system in the last couple of days,’ said the Hibs boss. ‘We’ll see them on Monday and gradually over the week we’ll start to pick them up and get them ready for Saturday. ‘I’m sure it’s been a tough weekend for them. We’ll pick them up the best we can. We’ve got a huge game next week and that will be the inspiration that will keep them going. ‘The Scottish Cup Final, that will keep us going. We want to use Friday, if we possibly can, to turn it into a positive to try and lift them for the Cup next week. ‘I think Friday is a case of seeing football at its cruellest. We sampled a real low and we have an opportunity to sample a real high. You have to go out there and grab it. ‘We have to make sure we’re ready to put ourselves in a position that we can try and win the Scottish Cup.’ Stubbs (left), meanwhile, admits he will sit down with the club’s hierarchy after the Scottish Cup Final to evaluate their season. With budgets expected to be cut as Hibs prepare for a third campaign in the second tier, doubts have been raised on whether Stubbs and some of the club’s top assets will be around next term. But the 44-year-old has hinted that he has no intention of walking away from the post. He said: ‘After every season, you speak about it at the end of the season and it’s the same. ‘We’re disappointed, our main priority was promotion and unfortunately we’ve not got that. ‘I’m not saying that (I could leave the club this summer). ‘I’ve got a year left and there’s nothing better but to try and get this club in (the Premiership). ‘We’ve put really good foundations down to take the club forward and we feel we’re doing that. We’ve just been dealt a real sucker punch.’
THERE must be some joy left in even this blighted corner of the game. It can’t be right that Scottish Cup Final week, usually a fun-filled way to round off a season of toil, should become a prolonged exercise in fear and dread. There has to be room for hope. Yes, even in the hearts of Hibs fans.
It certainly won’t be easy for Alan Stubbs, no slouch in the art of motivating and mobilisation, to find and nurture that kernel of faith subsumed by the waves of anger that followed the initial disappointment. There are plenty who don’t want to be persuaded that ‘this lot’ deserve even conditional support.
They see their club pitched into a situation that once would have been entirely unbelievable, a scenario where ending 114 years of waiting for Scottish Cup glory feels like a consolation prize, and wonder how it came to pass.
Well, not all of them are wondering. Some definitively know how this happened. Because they’ve been there every bloodied, battered and bruised step of the way.
And now they have questions that won’t wait until full-time at Hampden. Questions about the manager and his future, being asked not only by those who praise Stubbs — but others who would bury him under criticism and damnation.
There are questions, too, over the mentality and bottle of players too often found wanting when the extra one per cent — that nudge, the stretching of a limb, the split-second timing of a decision made — has been required.
On Saturday afternoon, Stubbs and his players will march headfirst into a Scottish Cup Final against opponents who are better resourced, more rested and better prepared for a contest destined to define the entire season.
There’s plenty at stake for Rangers, of course. A league and cup Double is never to be sniffed at, while the promise of European football next season would make Mark Warburton’s summer recruitment efforts a lot more enjoyable.
But all of those ‘pressures’ on the Championship title winners will feel like positives. Without a doubt, Warburton will be emphasising the rewards for success, rather than the price of failure.
As hard as Stubbs tries to do the same, to hold out the prospect of legendary status for the lucky few, the band of brothers who finally take the Scottish Cup back to Easter Road, he can’t avoid the air of disappointment. Can’t escape the knowledge that even future tales of a historic Cup win would forever be accompanied by a line about failure in the play-offs.
There were Hibs players close to tears on Friday night at the Falkirk Stadium. Grown men overcome with the horror of it all.
All of those players will be wondering what happens next.
Not just to them and their close friends, but to the man they call gaffer. Even in the unlikely event of Stubbs wanting to hang around for another year in the second tier, do Hibs still want him?
Somehow, Stubbs has to offer reassurance without boxing himself in. More importantly, he has to grapple with an issue that has baffled many a manager since that breed first pulled on tracksuits and started actually working with players. Namely, how to discern between poor technique and hair-brained thinking.
If your team allows a long throw-in to bounce in the box, then gives a striker enough room to get across his marker for a finish, is that down to weak mentality or ineptitude? Does it matter if it happens in the opening minutes of a game or the closing seconds of injury time, with everything on the line?
The same applies at the other end of the pitch. There will be missed chances. Are they down to poor striking of the ball or panic? Do these Hibs players merely perform to their limited potential, or are they guilty of freezing? An answer would be worrying, although for different reasons.
There is a possibility that Stubbs will come up with a different solution. Something that stumps the questioners. And allows a little sunshine to pour down on a corner of Leith that feels dark right now.