On-loan striker Anthony Stokes is looking forward to returning to the club that kick-started his career but he insists that sentiment won’t come into his thoughts tonight and his only objective is to help Hibs progress into the Play-off final against Kilmarnock.
Stokes moved to Falkirk on-loan from Arsenal and had a successful spell under John Hughes. His form with the Bairns impressed Roy Keane and the Irishman secured a big money move to Sunderland before returning to Scotland, first with Hibs then Celtic.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s game Stokes said: “I enjoyed that time with big Yogi there. They were a good bunch of lads and a good team at the time. It was a great period in my career, it was the first time I had really played senior first-team football. It was a great experience.
‘It kick-started my career but that’s all out of the window now. I am only focused on Hibs and getting us through and winning this game and moving on to the next one.”
Stokes’ return to Easter Road in the January window raised a few eyebrows although it was no secret that he did not see eye to eye with Hoops’ boss Ronnie Delia following an unfortunate tweet during before a Celtic game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Delia will leave the club in the summer and Stokes is waiting to discover who the next Celtic manager will be as he still sees his future at Parkhead although he is determined to have a successful end to his second spell at Easter Road.
He continued; “I’ve always said that I want to go back to Celtic at the end of the season. But there are four games left and I’m fully focused on Hibs because there’s so much to play for and so much you can achieve. I genuinely don’t have another thought in my head at the moment.
“Listen, if I score a couple of goals against Rangers and we win the Cup, and I score a few more and we get promoted, it won’t do me any harm. That’s pretty straightforward.
“But taking the headlines and scoring the goals isn’t what it’s all about. If I can contribute to the team and we get promoted and win the cup, I’ll be just as happy with that.’
“A few of the boys in there haven’t been in this situation before where these are must-win games. We are all fully focused. We know exactly the magnitude of the task ahead of us. But I don’t think anyone is afraid.
“You could see on Tuesday night that we played exactly how we wanted to, no-one hid away. Everyone wanted the ball and that’s what you need.
“These are still massive games and that was one of the reasons I came here. I wanted to go to a club with a chance to win some sort of silverware.
“We were unlucky in the last final and we have put ourselves in a final with Rangers now, but we have to put that on the back burner for now because the main focus has to be on getting promotion this year.”
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.
