Clarke seeks Hibs triumph to vindicate County exit
Harry Clarke’s future looked bright as he embarked upon the next step on his exciting football journey. But when the gifted young arsenal prospect ended a loan spell at ross County to head to Hibernian in January, a serious hamstring injury in training immediately kept him out until early april.
During that time the luckless 21-year-old had to watch from the stands as Hibs stumbled to a bottom-six finish while his old team in Dingwall defied the odds to rocket into the top half.
Insisting he had no desire to turn back the clock, however, Clarke believes beating Hearts in the Scottish Cup semi-final today and going on to lift the trophy would vindicate his decision to head for Easter road.
‘If I could tell the future, I would. But I don’t have any regrets,’ shrugged Ipswich-born Clarke.
‘These things happen in football. But I don’t think I made the wrong decision. ross County did well and we didn’t get the results we wanted. I think we deserve to be in the bottom six.
‘But a cup win would vindicate my decision. It also gives me added motivation. I want to win trophies and to play in games like semi-finals and finals is the reason why I play football.
‘We still have the last five league games and we will do as well as we can in them. But this match is a good chance not exactly to write off everything that has happened before now, but to have a really good end to the season, to win a cup and get into Europe.’
Hibs have never beaten Hearts at Hampden and Shaun Maloney’s men go into the semi-final on the back of a dispiriting 3-1 loss at Tynecastle in the league last week.
However, Clarke takes heart from the way his side played for the opening half an hour after taking a fifth-minute lead through Drey Wright.
‘Everyone saw that and we definitely need to take confidence from it,’ he said. ‘I thought we were all over Hearts and they had only one chance in the first half hour.
‘We have to do that for a longer period of time and then we have to see it out. We have loads of quality in our squad and a good bunch of boys. We need to show that.
‘after last weekend’s match, nobody was happy. The mood was never going to be good after a big game like that. all we could think about this week is getting a reaction. I think we have learned from last week and I think we will take that into the semi-final.’
Clarke is not sure why Hearts were able to grow so strongly into last weekend’s game, with andy Halliday scoring either side of Stephen Kingsley finding the net.
But he is certain Hibs will ensure their old foes faces a tougher game at Hampden today.
He added: ‘How did Hearts get the upper hand? That has been the big question for us this week.
‘I am not sure, but we have to put it right this weekend because it can’t happen again.
‘I don’t think anyone wasn’t competing. Nobody threw in the towel or anything like that.
‘It was maybe just that Hearts came out on top in duels where we should have done better.
‘Perhaps we could have been cleverer in a few things, but we
We have loads of quality and a good bunch of boys here
hope to put that right this weekend.’ The versatile Clarke can play full-back, wing-back and centre-half. He excelled on the right for ross County, but was deployed on the left by Maloney during last week’s derby. Bar borrowing Matt Macey’s goalkeeping gloves, he will try his hand anywhere if it means getting minutes in the first team. ‘I couldn’t tell you my best position,’ he mused. ‘as long as I am on the pitch, then I don’t really care. I don’t want to go in goal, but any other position I wouldn’t really care about. ‘I moved to ross County as a centre-back and I then moved to full-back and now I am playing as wing-back at Hibs. ‘I am slowly getting up the pitch and I might be a striker in a few weeks! ‘It has been a really good season apart from the injury. It was very hard to watch when you know you could be in the team. ‘after that injury it would be amazing if I could now end the season with a cup win. But we know we have to do the business at Hampden.’