What crisis? Ross shows he can thrive on the big stage
Social media is never truly an accurate gauge of how a whole fanbase is feeling, but there was a particular incident on Twitter last week which caught the eye.
Hibs club captain Paul Hanlon was handed a new contract, keeping him at the club until the summer of 2024. The 31-year-old has won the Scottish Cup with Hibs, played more than 400 matches, scored crucial goals in derbies and been capped by his country while at Easter Road. Yet the news that he was prolonging his stay at the club was greeted with gnashing of teeth and, in some instances, wailing.
Hanlon is a defender most clubs in Scotland would like to have in their ranks. Perhaps familiarity has blinded some Hibs fans of his talents: a solid, dependable left-sided centrehalf who can play in a three or a four, comfortable with the ball at his feet and a role model for his peers.
Or perhaps the angst among Hibbies was bigger than just a player signing a new deal. After all, they hadn’t watched their team play for almost a month, and before that the four matches they had attended had ended in defeats by Celtic, Aberdeen, Dundee United and Rangers. A serious outbreak of Covid-19 shut down Hibs’ training base and forced the postponement of cinch Premiership matches away at Ross County and Livingston. After a good start to the season, there was a feeling it might all be unravelling for Jack Ross and his players, the situation no doubt not helped by Hearts’ strong start to the campaign.
Football can change so quickly, though. Hibs came out of cold storage on Sunday and scorched Rangers to reach the Premier Sports Cup final. Three first-half goals from the talismanic Martin Boyle floored their groggy opponents at Hampden. A rare defensive mishap allowed Rangers an opportunity to come back off the canvas but, at 3-1, Hibs stood firm, absorbing some admittedly meek Rangers blows and booked a date with Celtic next month.
If ever a club needed this sort of pick-me-up, it was Hibs. While far from being a crisis point, after finishing third in the league last season, reaching the Scottish Cup final and League Cup semi-finals, the expectation was to reinforce their position as Scotland’s third-best club. Four losses on the spin had put some pressure on manager Ross, who is never far away from criticism from an element of the support who find it hard to forgive last season’s two Hampden losses to St Johnstone, plus the delayed 2019/20 Scottish Cup last-four defeat by Hearts.
It was therefore timely that Hibs issued a reminder that they have not turned into a bad team overnight. Their performance against Rangers was exceptional. Boyle grabbed the headline for hat-trick but Kevin Nisbet’s intelligent link-up play helped, full-backs Josh Doig and Chris Cadden bombed forward to support while never being found wanting defensively, while youngster Josh Campbell – handed his first start – did not look out of place alongside his more cultured midfield peers of Joe Newell and Jake Doyle-hayes, the latter rarely wasting the ball.
And at the back, there was Hanlon marshalling the team and defending magnificently, save for a tackle on 14 seconds on Joe Aribo that resulted in him being booked. Hanlon is not the sort of player who will be on social media poring over all the comments fired his way, but his performance shut up his critics. Alongside him, Paul Mcginn was superb but Ryan Porteous, the 22-yearold who has suffered at the hands of Alfredo Morelos and Rangers beforehand, must be singled out. His aggressive, whole-hearted style unfairly wins him as many friends and enemies, but Porteous kept Morelos very quiet and he was on the end of most crosses. Ross is a big supporter of his young centre-half and it won’t be long before he gets his first Scotland cap, having been involved in a couple of Steve Clarke’s squads.
Ross must be hailed for this result. His big-game record was put under the microscope ahead of Sunday. Two losses at Wembley with Sunderland, three Hampden defeats against one win is admittedly not the best of records, but one can argue – rightly – that it is better to have been in those positions rather than exiting knock-out competitions early on. The Hibs manager got his tactics spot-on. The 3-5-2 formation allowed his midfield to dominate Rangers and pushing Boyle right up front exposed the lack of pace on the turn in the Rangers defence. Playing Campbell was a gamble on paper, but the youngster’s energy in harassing Rangers’ ball-players paid off, and when 3-1 up Ross did not panic, resisting the temptation to go with one up front and subsequently maintaining Hibs’ threat.
The way the Hibs players and staff celebrated in front of their giddy supporters showed just how much this victory means to the club. There are new faces in at Easter Road. Sporting director Graeme Mathie was the last of the old guard to make way. New chief executive Ben Kensell, inset, has made some big calls already, with the appointment of Steve Kean as academy director – seen by controversial by some – and a huge restructure behind the scenes. Time will tell on whether those moves will be deemed successful, but it is a feather in the cap of this regime to reach a cup final.
The jubilation at full-time emphasised how important a win this was for the club and its fanbase, offering the platform for an exciting end to 2021.