EDINBURGH DERBY

He grew up a Gorgie boy and turned down the Tynecastle club to sign on at Hibs, but Cummings has already shown an appetite for goals in the Edinburgh derby

Can Easter Road star Cummings be hammer of Hearts again?

FOR A decade and more, through 27 net-bulging moments, Hibernian fans grieved the presence of John Robertson in a Hearts shirt. If the sight of a former Hibby serving up repeat doses of Edinburgh derby despair was too much to bear for the Easter Road faithful they now have a version of their own to celebrate.

Jason Cummings has a long way to go to emulate Robertson but, having played in seven Edinburgh derbies and scored four times, the 21-year-old has displayed a knack for this intense fixture.

Most memorably, he claimed the goal that knocked Hearts out during last season’s historic Scottish Cup run and today he aims to repeat the trick.

It’s common knowledge that Cummings grew up supporting Hearts and played for the club at youth level before being released in the wake of a bad knee injury.

What is less well known is that he spurned a late offer to return to Gorgie in favour of signing for the club’s greatest rivals.

James McDonaugh was Hibs’ head of academy coaching at the time and knew he’d stumbled upon something special when he saw Cummings playing in an Under-19s match for Hutchison Vale.

‘When you watch players at that level there is always an ingredient missing — a player might be lazy, doesn’t track back or lacks a bit of fitness,’ says McDonaugh, now assistant to Peter Houston at Falkirk. ‘Jason did everything properly. He was at it.

‘He worked hard, scored goals, laid them on, showed a turn of pace and his left foot was like a rocket. I thought this is strange, why is he here?

‘Without hesitation I knew we needed to get him in.’

Cummings was duly invited to train with Hibs, juggling his part-time work as a gardener and appearances with Hutchie Vale to force himself into the reckoning for a professional contract at Hibs.

Come decision time for the Hibs youth department, there were a couple of significant obstacles in the way, one ominously clad in maroon.

‘It was difficult because we had quite a few strikers in the youth team,’ explains McDonaugh. ‘Pat Fenlon had brought a couple of lads over from Ireland and our head of youth, Bill Henry, wasn’t sure we could accommodate another but Jason was different. He had something that couldn’t be ignored.

‘I got a phone call from his dad Davie saying that he had loved the training but Hearts had come in with a late bid to double the wages we were offering.

‘I told him we wouldn’t be able to match that but said I’d do my best. Bill backed my judgment but the package we came up with was still less than what Hearts offered.

‘The easy option for Jason would have been to go back to Hearts and earn more. In a day when footballers are accused for chasing the money, he deserves credit for making that decision.’

Less than six months later Cummings was in the Hibs team, pitched into a relegation fight at the age of 18.

‘We took him to the Foyle Cup that first summer, won the tournament and Jason scored a goal a game,’ says McDonaugh.

‘We came back realising we had something special — he had taken to full-time training like a duck to water.

‘He was looking strong and fit, he was handling everything about the transition and then when he went into the development league he just kept scoring goals.

‘Pat Fenlon was warming to him but needed to get results. When Pat moved on, Jimmy Nicholl just threw him in. He hasn’t looked back.’

Operating in the spotlight of the SPL, the dafter side of Cummings’ character started to emerge. In the wake of his first senior goals in the first leg of the play-off final against Hamilton Accies, he delivered a quote to the television cameras about the ‘zing’ in a left foot capable of ‘opening a tin of beans’.

This perceived arrogance did not initially go down well with some of the senior players at Hibs, as McDonaugh recalls.

‘I remember Tim Clancy coming up to me and asking: “Have you just signed a young striker and is it true he has got ‘Zing’ tattooed on his foot?”.

‘Clancy wanted to teach him a lesson but after one training session came back in saying what a great lad he was.

‘He’s played under Jimmy Nicholl, Terry Butcher, Alan Stubbs and now Neil Lennon and I’m pretty sure each has really warmed to him.

‘Some may not like certain sides of his character but his personality actually brings calmness in stressful situations and pressure moments. You’ve seen that in some of the big goals he has scored.’

Cummings’ goals in that play-off were quickly rendered worthless as Hamilton won the return leg to relegate Hibs in the summer of 2014.

The club’s demotion to the Championship saw Cummings promoted to the role of regular starter and he responded with two 20-goal plus campaigns under Alan Stubbs.

David Gray will forever be remembered as the man who headed the goal that ended Hibs’ 114-year wait for the Scottish Cup, but Cummings’ winner over Hearts in the last 16 — days after his goal on the other side of town had helped earned a replay — was worthy of hero status in itself.

And, after fluffing a ridiculous dinked penalty over the bar in the semi-final against Dundee United, he showed fortitude to step forward and hit the decisive penalty that sent the club into the final against Rangers.

McDonaugh does not expect Cummings to get anywhere near Robertson’s record derby goals total and views direct comparison of their respective talents as invidious.

However, he does see similarities in their back stories. Robertson used to attend Hibs games with his older brother George and was on the verge of signing a contract at Easter Road before joining Hearts in 1981.

‘It’s really unfair to make comparisons between young players and legends — and that applies both ways,’ reasons McDonaugh.

‘But it’s not so much the record, more the fairytale aspect to the story.

‘John Robertson was a Hibby who slipped through the net at Easter Road to sign for Hearts.

‘Jason was a Hearts fans who is now at Hibs with a knack of scoring against the other side. I don’t foresee him coming anywhere near Robertson’s record but he has certainly been a thorn in Hearts’ side so far.’

Although it’s highly probable that he will start today, it’s a sign of the mercurial side of Cummings’ game that he enters the game with a slight question mark hanging over his selection.

Lennon made a big pitch to get Cummings to sign a new contract in the face of a £1million offer from Peterborough last summer and was rewarded with an explosive start to the campaign in which the 21-year-old scored eight goals by mid-September.

A dip in form saw him taken out of the team and he started last weekend’s game against Ayr on the bench.

‘I hope Jason starts but Neil Lennon has managed him really well so far,’ adds McDonaugh.

‘Tynecastle certainly won’t faze him. Hearts will be conscious of the fact he is playing and that he can score from anywhere at any time.

‘He’ll also go back for a chance even if he’s missed five or six.’