Murray is relishing rapid reunion with old friends at Hibs
KILMARNOCK forward Fraser Murray says he’ll relish the oddity of opposing childhood friend
Ryan Porteous for the first time this afternoon.
The Premier Sports Cup pitches the Killie new boy against his former Hibernian pals only two months after leaving Leith.
Murray has been one of several bright lights in the relegated Rugby Park side’s unbeaten start to the season. The Championship favourites go up in grade today but that holds no fears for the 22-year-old who spent five seasons knocking on the Hibs first team door.
He returns along with fellow Easter Road old boys Jason
Naismith and Stephen McGinn and said: ‘The draw came as a surprise. It will be good to go back there, see a few pals and play against them.
‘There’s Sean Mackie, Jamie Gullan, I grew up with Ryan Porteous through the years. I’ve still been speaking to them quite a bit.
‘It will be weird coming up against Ryan, we’ve been in the same team since we were 12 years old!
‘I loved my time at Hibs, it was a good place to be. My only regret was I wish I went out on loan sooner than I did.
‘I had some injuries before that as well so I wasn’t quite right. But training every day and being involved playing first team was brilliant.’
A loan at Dunfermline primed Murray to make the split permanent and return to the second tier with Tommy Wright’s team.
He explained: ‘I had two years left at Hibs but didn’t want to do another loan. I wanted a fresh start somewhere and Kilmarnock is the perfect place.
‘As soon as you start getting into a first-team environment, you think: “I’m not here to make up the numbers, I need to play.”
‘That never worked out at Hibs. I’ve loved every minute of it here so far, we’ve started well and hopefully we can continue that in the cup.’
Meanwhile, Alex Gogic admits he endured a summer of ‘pain’ after Hibernian’s defeat against St Johnstone in last season’s Scottish Cup final.
But the Cypriot midfielder is ready to begin the healing process in domestic cup competition — starting with today’s visit of Killie.
Jack Ross’ team suffered more heartache on Thursday after they were dumped out of the Europa Conference League by Croatian side Rijeka and now need to respond at Easter Road this afternoon.
And Gogic (pictured, below), an ever-present for the Leith outfit this term, will waste no time in trying to get back on track after that midweek setback.
‘It made it a very long summer and it did take a while for me, personally, for the pain to go away,’ said Gogic of Hibs’ 1-0 loss against Saints at Hampden.
‘Sometimes when you have a game in two days, that is the best thing because it gives you the chance to do better.
‘Now, after losing that game in Rijeka, we have a game straight away and we can focus on Kilmarnock.
‘It is good because you don’t have time to sit and think about it really. But after the final it felt like a very long summer. It was painful.’
Hibs reached the semi-final of last season’s League Cup — when they lost to St Johnstone again — and finished third in the Premiership.
Asked if the Leith men had a target on their back, Gogic added: ‘The league doesn’t lie. I think when a team does finish that high then they are always a target. People know who you are and how good you are.’