PRESSURE IS NO PROBLEM
Hibs don’t mind being Betfred favourites
NO Celtic or Rangers. No Aberdeen or Hearts. No good reason, then, why Hibs shouldn’t back themselves to get past St Johnstone in their Hampden semi-final tomorrow and whoever else may lie in wait.
Jack Ross gets the reasoning. But if others feel the burden on the Easter Road side’s shoulders is now heightened because of the way the Betfred Cup has opened up, the manager insists that the weight of expectation on his players has never really changed.
‘It’s okay for us because one of the clear ambitions we’ve had from day one in pre-season is to win silverware in this campaign,’ said the Hibernian boss.
‘We have put expectations on ourselves from that first moment. It’s not easy — it’s tiring in terms of the work you need to do to do it.
‘Now we’re in the semi-final of another cup, it wouldn’t matter what teams are involved. That expectancy on us and that ambition to win silverware has always been there and will continue to be there.’
The need to strike a balance between what is desirable and what is achievable is the perennial challenge for any manager.
Last summer, Ross assessed the players at his disposal and saw no reason for them to hide their light under a bushel. Establishing a consensus that something is achievable is generally the first motion towards making it happen.
‘When I came to the club, I didn’t want to tread water and just bob about,’ he said. ‘I wanted to try to bring success to the club and I don’t think it is unrealistic for Hibs to be challenging to win cups every single year.
‘We might not do that, but we should always go into a season believing we can.
‘I felt we had begun to put together a squad that was capable of doing that. It felt realistic to push the players towards that and there has been nothing through the course of the season that has changed my mind.’
Currently third in the league, the foundations of an impressive season have been put down.
It’s trophies, however, that separate the good years from the great and the memorable from the historic. Adding 2021 to the modern-day list of 1991, 2007 and 2016 would do just that.
‘It transforms the perspective of your season,’ said Ross. ‘Because you have achieved that tangible success and you have memories of that season.
‘People’s wider opinion of it becomes even more positive, so we are aware of that. But the main driver is just about this quest to win silverware.’
It can surely do them no harm that they have a wrong to right. Losing to Hearts at this stage of the delayed Scottish Cup was wounding. Time has dulled the pain but it’s still there.
‘The disappointment and pain we felt after that was because we believed we could have gone on to win the cup,’ added Ross (below). ‘Now we have a chance to try to do that again.’
It’s about much more than redemption. These games can define and redefine careers.
‘We’ve got players who have won trophies, but I’ve got someone like Jamie Murphy, who has had a brilliant career but not won anything,’ said Ross.
‘He’s won a promotion but hasn’t won a medal, so that drive and hunger going through the players to win something is there. It’s a collective drive.’
For Ross, too, this is a chance to ballast his reputation and join Alex Miller, John Collins and Alan Stubbs as the men who won major honours at the club. ‘When you get closer to success, you want to get that step further, you want to win trophies,’ he added. ‘It is the most enjoyable part of this job; that opportunity to have tangible success. ‘It comes down to the chase to go down in history and for everyone at the club to say: “We won silverware”. For a lot of clubs in Scotland, that doesn’t happen as regularly as it does for a couple others.’ The addition of Jackson Irvine and Chris Cadden gives Ross selection headaches of the right kind, with the imminent return of Scott Allan another. Together with Joe Newell, Ofir Marciano returned to full training after injury this week but the clean sheet Matt Macey claimed in the win over Kilmarnock should not make the Israeli keeper’s return to the side automatic.
In every sense, Hibs are in a good place right now. Three straight defeats have been bookended by a draw with Celtic and a comprehensive win over Kilmarnock. They are right to view this semi as being more about what they do.
‘Even if we had not gone on that slightly more positive run again, the players have shown me that there is a buy-in to what we do,’ said Ross.
‘There has to be that united buy-in and you are going to have dips, so the faith and trust has always been there. You just have to be patient with it as well.’
● JACK ROSS was speaking to promote Premier Sports’ live and exclusive coverage of the Betfred Cup match Hibernian v St Johnstone on Saturday from 5pm. Premier Sports is available on Sky, Virgin TV and the Premier Player. Prices start from £9.99 per month.