Stubbs licks his lips at pros pect of Rangers
Easter Road manager relishing another crack at Warburton despite poor record
HIS Hibernian side will meet Rangers a little later this week with the William Hill Scottish Cup final now scheduled to be their sixth encounter of the season, but Alan Stubbs insists that will do nothing to detract from the special nature of that May 21 date at Hampden Park
The Easter Road club’s manager reckons his players have set up “what could potentially be one of the most exciting weeks the club has ever seen”. For all their familiarity with the opponents who saw off their Championship challenge, the nature of that occasion brings a very different dynamic. You can never be sick of the sight of coming to Hampden and playing in a Scottish Cup final. That is what we can look forward to when the time comes round,” he observed.
Anticipating what will be his 12th meeting with Rangers in two seasons in the job – both sides having won five, but the Ibrox club’s record having improved hugely under Mark Warburton – Stubbs paid tribute to the exceptional job done by his counterpart by whom he has been outmanoeuvred in three of this season’s four meetings.
“Mark has done a really good job,” acknowledged Stubbs. “I don’t think anyone could have written that they’d get promotion and be in a Scottish Cup final. Rangers will rightly be favourites, but, on our day and on a Scottish Cup final day, as we have seen in the past, anything is possible.”
Stubbs knows it is likely to be as fiercely physical an encounter as modern football permits, but does not think that will be specifically down to any rivalry built up between the teams.
“It would have been feisty if it was Celtic as well,” he said. “Rangers have done great this year. Mark has done what everyone has expected a Rangers team to do. I have to say, it has taken the club a year longer than what was expected, but I think that tells you how difficult the Championship is.”
While Rangers can afford to devote all their attention to getting their preparation right for the cup final, they can contribute to making life even more difficult for their opponents in the interim since victory on Wednesday would all but ensure that Hibs must play the maximum number of play-off matches to join them in returning to the Ladbrokes Premiership at the end of the season.
“We have a lot of football to be played before we get to the final,” Stubbs accepted. “We know we are in the play-offs and we need to try and finalise now where we want to finish. It won’t be easy, but, when you look at the week we could potentially have, it is quite exciting.”
On a semi-final weekend which revolved around penalty kicks, there was rather too much excitement on Saturday for a man who admits he cannot watch his team take them as Jason Cummings horribly missed one in the first half of a match which ended 0-0 after extra time, before registering the decider in a 4-2 shoot-out triumph.
“I didn’t see one of ours hit the net. I look at the fans’ reactions. That’s what I did as a player,” Stubbs admitted.
“It’s not necessarily superstition, I just didn’t like looking at them. I used to turn round on the halfway line and look the opposite way, then I used to look for the fans’ reactions.”
His biggest task now, however, revolves around instilling in his players the strength of mind required by the biggest of the clubs participating in the play-offs which in turn offered context to the admiration he expressed for the way their cup final opponents have coped with knowing nothing other than winning every week is deemed acceptable.
“For some players going into every game this season when you are expected to win, mentally it can be quite demanding,” he said.
“That is why I have to take my hat off to the likes of Rangers and Celtic this season, there has been huge expectation on them to win every game, but it has been on us as well for large parts of this season and it can at some point take its toll. I have said all along it is not what you do in April, it is what you do in May. We have to gear everything towards what could potentially be one of the most exciting weeks the club has ever seen.”