WHY HIBS ARE HOT ON INDIANA JONES’S HEELS

SAYS ALAN STUBBS

FOR every Hi b s manager since the legendary Dan Mc Michael, the Scottish Cup has turned into a poisoned chalice. Over the past 114 years, 30 Easter Road bosses have gone in pursuit of sweet success, only to end up with the familiar, acrid taste of failure.

Among them were Hugh Shaw, who won three league titles for Hibs, Jock Stein, who clinched a Summer Cup, plus Eddie Turnbull, Alex Miller and John Collins, who each brought the League Cup back to Leith.

But not one of the long line of contenders stemming back to that last triumph over Celtic in 1902 has managed to win what current incumbent Alan Stubbs yesterday admitted represents the Holy Grail to the club.

Yet, perhaps inspired by his choice of Christmas movie viewing, the eternally optimistic Hibs boss will ‘crack the whip’ on a quest that will finally end one of the most baffling anomalies in Scottish football.

‘I have referred to the Scottish Cup as the Holy Grail, but even Indiana Jones got that in the end,’ grinned Stubbs. ‘I was aware of the Scottish Cup record before I took this job. Then, when my first tie in the competition was approaching last year, I became even more aware of it.

‘It wasn’t necessarily the Hibs fans who brought it up. It just seems like a general topic everyone speaks about — the fact that it’s now well over 100 years.

‘But as I’ve said all along, it’s got to change some time. When that is, unfortunately, the crystal ball is not telling me. But I might go and see a fortune teller and maybe they can enlighten me.

‘But when you look at the recent cup competitions, there’s probably a better chance of other teams winning it. The duopoly of Celtic and Rangers in my playing days meant you could virtually guarantee at least one of them would reach the Final.

‘Celtic are obviously still very strong and you would think they’ll be there or there about. But the rest of the teams can beat each other and it’s great.

‘Every team enters the competition with the dream. Every f an is wondering if this can be their year — and I am entering the Scottish Cup in my second season as Hibs manager with exactly that same thought.’

If the competition is the Holy Grail for Hibs, last season’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Falkirk was more like The Exorcist. Arriving at Hampden to lay some long-standing demons to rest, the Hibs defence was frozen to the spot, terrified by a cross as Craig Sibbald headed the Bairns i nto the Final against Inverness Caley Thistle.

Stubbs rates that day as one of his lowest in the job and admits there was a feeling building all afternoon that Hibs would not, indeed could not, reach the Final.

But he insists the club’s lamentable Cup record will not weigh heavily on his players as they prepare for tomorrow’s fourth-round trip to fellow Championship side Raith Rovers.

‘That semi-final last season wasn’t great,’ Stubbs admitted. ‘We were so close and we played so well, but it was just one of those days when it wasn’t meant to be.

‘We did everything that day: we had chances, hit the post, hit the crossbar. But I got the feeling we could have played another 180 minutes and still not won.

‘People maybe said: “That sums Hibs up” but, since I’ve come here, there have been a lot of things that people have possibly said: “That sums Hibs up” — and, hopefully, I’m changing people’s mind-sets.

‘I don’t think the record is in the heads of the players. It’s like when you go on a winning run or encounter a losing run. It’s only a matter of time when it finishes and I think it’s the same with this.

‘But it’s not easy to win a cup. A lot depends on the luck of the draw.’

Already in January, Stubbs has l anded 24- year- old Norwegian defender Niklas Gunnarsson on loan from Valerenga. He has also secured experienced 29-year- old striker Chris Dagnall from Indian side Kerala Blasters.

Yesterday, he confirmed that full-back Adam Eckersley is leaving, possibly for a club in Canada, while Jordon Forster could be heading out on loan, to Plymouth or York City. The fate of on-loan Chelsea striker Islam Feruz, who has not made an impact since his summer switch, remains up in the air.

But Stubbs is happy that his squad is good enough to fight on three fronts with Hibs facing a League Cup semi-final against St Johnstone this month — as well as the Scottish Cup — and the race with Falkirk and Rangers for promotion.

‘The two new guys will be really good additions to a quality squad,’ he said. ‘Even before the last window, we were putting together a squad capable of dealing with being involved on every front. And, at the moment, we are right where we want to be.

‘ We start our Scottish Cup campaign on Saturday.

‘We all know the history of Hibs in the competition but we start with the mind- set of trying to win the Cup. Otherwise there is no point.’