Nisbet’s words of praise for former Hibees boss Jack
Kevin Nisbet will head to Hampden today, hoping to pick up his first-ever winner’s medal.
And if that is a slightly surprising statistic, the Hibs striker couldn’t care less. As he points out, he is in good company.
“Look at Harry Kane. He hasn’t won anything,” he said with a smile.
“As a player, you always want to win but you never know when the opportunity is going to come your way.
“We have done the hard work to get to this final. We put in a great shift to beat Rangers in the semi.
“So now we have the chance to go win a trophy, which would be my first, and we need to take it.
“If we could do that – win the Cup by beating the two top teams in the country – it would be the best way to do it because we would know we deserved it.”
Success for the Leith team would also neatly round off what has been a remarkable 2021 for the 24-year-old.
Denied the chance to move to England and Birmingham City in the January transfer window, with Hibs rejecting repeated bids of up to £3-million, Nisbet responded by tabling a transfer request.
That the fraught situation was turned round to the extent he went to the Euros with Scotland was, he argues, down to his former manager, Jack Ross.
“Jack gave me a lot of advice when that was happening. He has been through a lot of it as a manager, and he was good with me.
“When he first brought me here, he gave me belief and he also helped my all-round game. I was lacking in areas, but we worked on things and he improved me a lot.
“He also really looked after me when I had offfield issues and at the time of the transfer request he did the right thing by me.
“He took the pressure and limelight off me for a few weeks, and then eased me back in.
“It worked wonders as after that I got my Scotland call-up.
“Jack always kept my confidence levels high and he always believed in me. I will be forever grateful to him.
“What happened was sad and we spoke after he left because I wanted to express my gratitude to him for what we had done for me. I will always only have good things to say.
“Now, though, we have a cup final to focus on now and the boys are 100% behind David Gray, Craig Samson and Eddie May.
“If we could win it , that would indeed be the perfect way to finish off what has been an amazing year for me.
“Sometimes I do think back to the Euros, and think that was a once-ina-lifetime opportunity.
“But Scotland is growing as a country and a nation, and we’re getting into positions where we can start qualifying for a lot more major tournaments.
“Hopefully, next year’s World Cup will be the next one of them.”