BACK IN THE BIG TIME AT LAST
Jubilant Hibs will be a worthy addition to the Premiership
IT has lacked the nerveshredding tension — and subsequent explosion of uncontainable joy — experienced on that day in May. Nothing Hibernian Football Club ever achieve may match the sheer delirium of their jinx-busting, hoodoolifting, curse-ridding Scottish Cup win.
But promotion back to Scotland’s top flight? Now there’s a lasting success that matters even more — yes, honestly — than the most glorious one-off trophy triumph at Hampden. Not merely in the eyes of those charged with balancing the books at Easter Road, but to fans who finally feel as if their club is back where they belong.
A Premiership club, really. That’s what everyone has been saying about Hibs since they took that head-first plunge into the Championship back in 2014. The stadium, the training facilities, the strong squad boasting even a full Scotland international … everything about the Easter Road outfit had an air of quality not always found even in Scotland’s elite division.
Well, almost everything. Because, for two of the past three seasons, they’ve failed to add the one thing missing from the well-run and ambitious organisation. A place among the top 12.
True, they’ve faced some uniquely trying circumstances. That first season down in the depths, when Hearts came barrelling out of administration to run away with the title and runners-up Rangers proved so difficult to overcome, was the league equivalent of a World Cup group of death; there was no embarrassment in being squeezed out of the running.
Last season, they went back and forth with a Rangers team finally making the most of their natural advantages, eventually failing to keep pace with the Ibrox club — and then suffering a play-off loss to Falkirk.
It didn’t help, of course, that they were a little distracted by a certain Cup run destined to make history. But it still felt like failure for a club increasingly constrained by their surroundings.
In clinching the league flag by mid-April this year, then, Hibs have most definitely topped their achievements of recent seasons. But they have not exceeded their own expectations.
Because, yes, the appointment of Neil Lennon last summer was always going to bring experience, tactical nous and man-management skills to the role vacated by Cup-winning gaffer Alan Stubbs.
More importantly, however, it was also designed to crank up the demands on players in danger of feeling a little too comfortable in the second tier. Lennon was never going to stand for anything but a title win.
Dundee United be damned, forget Falkirk — this was Hibernian’s year. And Lenny was going to make sure that nobody slacked off on the job.
When Hibs have underperformed, their manager has reminded them — sharply, at times — of both their responsibilities to supporters and the standards expected by his coaching staff. He has thrown himself back into the madhouse of Scottish football with enthusiasm. Often uncurbed.
Credit the Easter Road board, then, for identifying Lennon as the best man for the job and then persuading him to hitch his wagon to Hibs.
Having seen the numbers in black, white and a little too much red, the people running the business side of the club knew that a fourth season out of the Premiership would be ruinous.
So they went for a proven manager equally in need of success. And then backed his judgment when it came to recruitment. A textbook example of how to get ahead in football.
And now, in the moment of glory? Even fans who had been feigning disinterest in the top flight, arguing that the Championship was more exciting than the Premiership, that the second tier was really the place to be for drama and entertainment, can drop the pretence.
This is what they’ve craved since that insanely Hibs-esque (can we still use that term?) day against Hamilton. The Edinburgh derby back on the big stage — hopefully for good. A chance to renew that rivalry with Rangers, to welcome Celtic and Aberdeen to Leith as nearequals. To be in the same league, literally, as clubs of comparable size.
As for this perception that they’ve somehow stumbled over the line? Wind it in. They’ve won the league with three games to spare. And beaten their rivals when it mattered.
The most glorious demonstration of both their current prowess and their potential for future greatness came, undoubtedly, on a Friday night in January.
United were the visitors to an Easter Road Stadium packed to the gunnels with almost 19,000 fans.
Hibs swept them aside in front of a delirious support who, however often they’d been bitten in the past, at last began to believe that this was possible. That promotion was actually on.
They had 17,000 there for the title party on Saturday, too, proof positive that all the damage to clubsupporter relations suffered during the lean years has been more than repaired.
Chief executive Leeann Dempster summed up the current mood as she told fans yesterday: ‘Winning this Championship is dedicated to you and your families who have kept the club going through the years.’
Season-ticket sales are already running at record levels, incidentally. Can you imagine what Easter Road is going to be like if the team get off to a good start next season? What about the atmosphere if they get to kick off the new campaign by unfurling the Championship flag
and parading the Scottish Cup, having retained it in some style?
Ah, that’s crazy talk. The wild ravings of a fevered imagination. Well, after three years in purgatory, with just the one sunny afternoon off for good behaviour, Hibs fans are entitled to at least dream of such heavenly impossibilities.