If the current Hibs team want to look for an example of what could happen against Rangers this weekend, they should take a peek at the League Cup semi-final at Hampden. We had a team full of weans – and we managed to knock out a side of superstars. That penalty shootout win was one of the best feelings of my career. When you look back at that Hibs side, with the likes of Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Garry O’Connor and Derek Riordan – and yours truly – it resembles a right good side.
But back in 2004 we were still just kids and no one gave us a hope in Hell of beating that Rangers team. They had genuine world class players in their line up back then. The De Boer brothers, Mikel Arteta, Michael Mols, Stefan Klos, Christian Nerlinger and so on. They were paying top dollar for players and they’d dished out a couple of sore ones to us that season before Hampden.
We had to do it the hard way, coming from behind and scoring a late equaliser with Stephen Dobbie’s penalty. It went to spot kicks and it was joy, relief, the lot to stick mine away and some celebration at the end when we won. I’d argue that was a bigger upset than it would be if Hibs could knock out Rangers on Sunday.
The gap was wider back then – but that doesn’t mean it’s not a tall order for Hibs now. We were young guys and showed no fear. That will be the key this time around for Nick Montgomery’s side. There’s no doubt they will need to be a heck of a lot better than they’ve been in recent games against Rangers though.
The two games this season have been embarrassing. The 4-0 at Ibrox was poor and it could have been more. The 3-0 at Easter Road was arguably just as bad. Hibs never laid a glove on them. In fact, it’s been this way for too long in the Rangers games. We’ve seen other teams give them a game but the results have been rotten, going back to when Jack Ross was in charge and beat them in the League Cup semi at Hampden a good while back.
It’s changed days from when Hibs won the Scottish Cup against Rangers and regularly got the better of them in the Championship that season under Neil Lennon back in the Premiership. They don’t need to go back 20 years for motivation either. Motherwell showed last weekend what can be done if you have a go at them.
Up until last Saturday, Rangers had put together a strong run of results, but I still don’t think they were that convincing. Motherwell got at them and made life very uncomfortable. That’s what Hibs need to do this weekend. They’ve proved they have it in them. They gave Celtic a chasing for 45 minutes recently and it was brutal the way they lost it at the end.
The performances in the last few weeks suggest they have turned a corner under Montgomery. Hibs certainly have the firepower to hurt any team.
They’ve got about six attacking players that can do damage if they play on the front foot. They also look a lot more solid since Montgomery ditched the 4-4-2 and went for a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation.
Scoring goals is certainly not a problem. Keeping them out at the other end has been though, and the clean sheet in the comfortable win against Ross County was much needed. They’ll need to be switching on for 90, 120 minutes, however long it takes this time. Rangers losing to Motherwell could either spark a reaction or inject a few doubts.
But Hibs couldn’t really ask for a better time to be taking them on. The Europa League encounter with Benfica will take a lot out of Rangers. They’ve got a big squad but they also have injuries to a fair few, so it will be interesting to see how they are coming back from Portugal and straight into a crucial cup tie.
Hibs need to go for it and if they are a big leggy, it could be their big chance to create another huge cup upset.
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