As the team line ups were announced ahead of the game against Dumbarton on Saturday, there was a buzz amongst the Hibs’ fans when Jason Cummings’ name was read out and there was similar buzz in the press room after the club agreed to provide Jason for the after match conference.
You never know what you will get from Hibs’ top scorer, but no-one in the room expected a quote from ‘Old Blue Eyes’ culminating in a plethora of Sinatra related headlines in the morning papers.
After a spell on the sidelines, Cummings returned to the starting XI and almost capped a fine performance with a goal however the linesman’s flag was raised against Brian Graham.
After the game Cummings said: “I’m delighted to be back. I was missing it and I didn’t realise how much. Maybe I just took it all for granted.
“Now I’m back, I just want to stay in because this is a good team. With the squad we’ve got, someone will take your jersey off you if you drop your standards.
“It feels a bit harder for me because the players that came in took their chances, like Boyler [Martin Boyle] and the strikers. They came in and played well so I couldn’t really ask questions.”
“I hadn’t scored and I wasn’t playing that well. He (Neil Lennon) had the right to try someone else. It’s been a massive learning curve for me. It has made me more hungry. I know the demands that this gaffer expects. If you drop your game of couple of games, it just proves that, with the squad we’ve got, someone will take your jersey from you, no problem. It’s a fight for places so you have to be on your best game every week.
“I’ve just been working hard on everything. He didn’t say ‘you’re dropped because you can’t finish’ or ‘you can’t do that’. It’s just phases. Every player has phases, ups and downs. I don’t think there is anything I could do about it. It just happened.”
“I never sulked and just worked hard. The players who replaced me took their chance, so I couldn’t really ask questions.
“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt. You feel like you’re missing out, you don’t feel a part of it.”
“I’d never been dropped, but it happens to every player. That’s football. You’re riding high in April and shot down in May.
“I wasn’t really feeling 100 per cent. I got sent home from training as I wasn’t that well.
“I feel like I can’t get a break right now. A couple of those chances would have gone in at the start of the season but the chances will come, I just need to be patient.
Head Coach Neil Lennon said: It’s good for Jason to get the 90 minutes, although I don’t think he got any sniffs at goal
“I think it has hurt him being out but he has responded well and he’s looked sharp in training.”
“Jason hasn’t played for a while and was maybe a bit rusty today. It’s good for him to get 90 minutes though.
“He knows that he wasn’t playing as well as he could and no one’s got a god given right to start every week. You’ve got to earn it.
“He’s a great personality and a bubbly boy. He’s not sulked once or has been banging on my door. He’s just got on with it.
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.
