FANTASTIC FOUR
Stubbs a step closer to ending Cup curse
THAT 113 years have passed since Hibernian last won the Scottish Cup has become one of the nation’s l ongest- running jokes.
At times, the pain and humiliation of t hi s ol d cl ub has been unbearable. On the streets of Leith, they stopped laughing some time around the 1950s.
This mundane, meat-and-drink quarter-final victory over Berwick Rangers was achieved with the minimum of fuss and stress.
Yet the final whistle brought loud, prolonged cheers. Of the four clubs left in the Cup, Hibs are the least likely to take their place in the semi-finals — where they will face Falkirk — for granted.
Alan Stubbs is the 29th man to manage Hibs since Dan McMichael won the Cup in 1902. They have lost 11 finals in the years since then but now find themselves one game away from a 12th.
For a Hibs boss, a nnual questions on this subject come with the territory. Stubbs might weary of them soon enough yet, in his first year in the job, he offers no more than a shrug.
‘Someone has to do it,’ he said after this victory. ‘Whether it is me or the next manager — someone has to do it one day.
‘ While we are sti l l in t he competition, you can keep asking me the question. It may be me, it may not be. We will see what happens. I am looking forward to it and we will see what happens.’
Two goals i n two f i rst- half minutes from Jason Cummings and Lewis Stevenson all but secured the game.
In the final half hour, Hibs scored another t wo vi a s ubstitute Sam Stanton and Liam Fontaine without ever really moving through the gears.
‘It was a professional job, even though we were not on our A game,’ added Stubbs. ‘I thought we were very professional. The goals in the first half settled us down and, as long as we did not do anything silly or lose concentration, we always looked like we would score and add to our tally — and so it proved.
‘The quarter-finals is a horrible position because you are so close, yet so far. The next worst is the semi-final because, again, you are so close to a major cup final. But the players have given themselves an opportunity and I honestly feel it is one they will grab hold of.
‘We are not going for a day out. That’s the l ast thing I want. I can’t think of anything worse than going to the national stadium and having a day out.’
Second bottom of Scotland’s fourth tier, Berwick are fighting for their senior status. A first ever Scottish Cup semi-final would have been an unexpected and remarkable achievement here.
A League Cup semi- f i nal in 1963- 64 r emains t heir only appearance in the last four of a major tournament and that was never l i kel y to c hange in Edinburgh.
Second in the Championship, the home team opened the scoring in 26 minutes after man-of-the-match Stevenson — Hibs’ longest-serving player — pierced the Berwick defence with a low pass from the left touchline, Cummings making the r un a nd a ngl i ng a composed finish into the net. Within two minutes, Hibs had doubled t heir l ead, with Stevenson again excelling. The defender surged forward, played a one-two with Dominique Malonga a nd t hen held off a defender be fore rasping the ball high into the net. Steven son’s emergence as a goalscorer — he now has three f or the season — has surprised and delighted his manager. ‘ The l ast person you would have expected to be on the end of the second one was Lewis,’ said Stubbs. ‘That is what he has added to his game. He is very much the Mr Shy Guy but you can see that f rom his celebrations — he doesn’t know what to do.’
Stevenson’s strike killed the game as a contest. Berwick have played their opponents from Edinburgh seven times and failed to score a goal, let alone win a match. The prospects of a comeback now seemed non-existent.
The semi-professional team from the border with England had travelled up the A1 with four f ormer Hibs players i n their starting XI and pursued by an impressive 897 supporters.
Their team managed a few cracks on goal from long-range shots at least, almost all of them from midfielder Lee Currie.
His finest effort came two minutes before half-time as Berwick put together their best passing move of the half, Currie smashing a left-foot effort just inches wide of Mark Oxley’s left-hand post from the edge of the area.
Two goals down against a full-time team, their fitness was never l i kely to stand up to close scrutiny.
Hibs should have scored a third in 52 minutes when Scott Allan’s cross prompted a strong header back across goal from Paul Hanlon, with David Gray heading on to the face of the post when he should have scored.
The game fell into a comatose state before the difference in fitness levels began to tell and Hibs found some breathing space.
Inevitably, a third goal came — in 66 minutes — when on-loan Celtic attacker Dylan McGeouch rolled the ball into the path of Malonga in a shooting position.
Keeper Willie Bald parried the striker’s angled shot but pushed it into the direct path of Stanton — just two minutes on the pitch as a replacement for Allan. The No 11 slotted the loose ball into the net from close range.
For Hibs, it was a question of how many they could now squeeze in before the final whistle.
They managed one more eight minutes from time when Fontaine headed Stanton’s corner firmly into the net from eight yards.
‘It is crazy that a club like Hibs has not won the Cup for so long,’ said Stevenson. ‘But I would love to be part of the team that does win it. It would be nice not to hear about it every time we play in the Scottish Cup.
‘It has actually crossed my mind a few times to retire if we do it…’