Nine years ago Hibs won the CIS League Cup beating Kilmarnock 5-1 at Hampden Park. They hope to repeat this achievement on Sunday when they face Ross County.
Today the Edinburgh Reporter looks back at that historic game and reveals what has happened to the players and staff involved.
The game took place on Sunday 18th March 2007 and was the 60th final since the tournament began. 52,000 supporters attended the game, with the vast majority supporting Hibs.
Hibs reached the final after beating Peterhead 4-0, Gretna 6-0, Hearts 1-0 and St Johnstone 3-1.
The Easter Road side took the lead in the 28th minute when the captain Rob Jones sent a powerful header past Alan Combe from a David Murphy corner.
The half time score was 1-0 then Hibs ran riot in the second half. Abdessalam Benjelloun made it 2-0 in the 59th minute then Steven Fletcher added a third seven minutes later.
Gordon Greer pulled one back in the 77th minute but another goal by ‘Benji’ then a fifth from Fletcher secured the trophy.
The Hibs team that day was:
Andrew McNeil who joined the club as a youngster from Southampton. He spent three years at Easter rad before moving to Montrose. He is currently playing in the Championship with Morton.
Steven Whittaker moved to Rangers where he made 150 appearances before moving to Norwich City where he remains. He was also won 30 international caps.
Chris Hogg arrived from Ipswich Town having played for England’s Under 15s, 17s, 18s and 19s. He played 143 league games for the club before moving to Inverness Caledonian Thistle. He is now a lead coach with Ipswich Town Academy.
Rob Jones was the captain of the team. The 6ft 7in centre half arrived at Hibs from Grimsby Town and played almost 100 league games before moving to Scunthorpe. He then moved to Sheffield Wednesday and Doncaster where he was caretaker manager for a spell before moving to Hartlepool last month on a contract to the end of the season.
David Murphy was a popular left back who joined Hibs from Middlesbrough. after playing over 100 games for the club, he moved to Birmingham for a reported £1.5m. He was an unused substitute when Birmingham won the English League Cup by beating Arsenal 2-1. Injury hampered his career and he was forced to retire on medical advice in March 2014. He will be a guest of Hibernian at this year’s final.
Ivan Sproule will always be remembered for scoring a hat trick in a 3-0 win over Rangers at Ibrox. He joined the club from Northern Ireland part timers Institute for a fee of £5,000 and after 71 games he moved to Bristol City for around £500,000. He returned to Hibs under Colin Calderwood and played another 44 games before moving to Ross County. He currently plays for Linfield in Northern Ireland. He won 11 international caps including a substitute appearance in a famous victory over England.
Guillaume Beuzelin joined Hibs from Le Harve and quickly won the hearts of the supporters with some classy performances. He played 99 league games for the club before moving to Coventry City. He is currently coaching with Hamilton Academical.
Scott Brown joined Hibs as a youngster and made over 100 appearances before moving to Celtic for £4.4m. He is Celtic and Scotland’s captain and has won numerous honours at Parkhead. He currently has 49 international caps.
Lewis Stevenson has the chance to become the only Hibs’ players ever to win two major cup competitions with the club. He played in midfield that day as a 17 year old but now has made the left back position his own. He recently made his 300th appearance for the club.
Steven Fletcher joined Hibs as a youngster and made over 150 league appearances, scoring 43 goals before a big money move to Burnley. He later moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers then Sunderland. He is currently on loan to French club Marseille. He has 25 international caps and has scored eight times for Scotland.
Abdessalam Benjelloun arrived at Hibs from Maghreb Fez and scored 11 times in 81 league games. He moved to Charleroi on loan then Roeselare also on loan. In 2011 he signed for Ismaily SC then a year later he signed for Wydad de Fes. In 2014 he moved to FUS Rabat and now plays for FAR Rabat in Morocco.
The used substitutes that day were Sheldon Martis who currently plays for Curacao, Kevin McCann who now plays for Falkirk and Merouane Zemmama who has retired from football.
The unused subs were Simon Brown who has also retired and Michael Stewart who is a TV pundit.
Manager John Collins left Hibs by mutual consent in December 2007. He is now Assistant Manager of Celtic.
The Kilmarnock team featured Alan Combe who is now a goalkeeping coach at Easter Road, Colin Nish who later joined Hibs and Scotland striker Steven Naismith.
Former Hearts and Kilmarnock manager Gary Locke made an appearance from the bench.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
