Hibs’ defender Jordon Forster praised his team mates’ professionalism in disposing of ‘bogey team’ Ayr United at Easter Road yesterday.
After returning from injury, Forster was paired with new signing Efe Ambrose in the centre of the defence and apart from a sensational strike from Craig McGuffie, the due were never troubled.
With Hibs leading 2-0 a poor decision by the East Stand linesman robbed Martin Boyle of a second penalty after wrongly flagging for offside when the winger was at least a yard onside and had that gone it the players could have relaxed but with the score at 2-1 it took concentration from the defenders to ensure passage to the semi-finals.
Despite the chance of more Scottish cup glory however Forster insists that promotion if the main objective this year.
After the game he told Cliff Pike of Hibernian TV: “Ayr have proved a tough test for us this season. Today I though we played well. After their goal they got after us for ten minutes but I thought on the whole it was a good professional job.
“It was disappointing to lose a goal but in that fashion sometimes you can’t do too much about it.
“There wasn’t too many tests for us. Efe (Ambrose) likes to play football but it’s always hard as a centre half pairing when you haven’t played together but we got to know each other pretty quickly.
“The manager made a point before the game that we had to start well. We started well against Dunfermline but they came back and scored a couple of goals against us so when Ayr pulled one back it was important that we got hold of the game quickly.
“When Jason (Cummings) stepped up to take the penalty everyone in the stadium would be 100% confident that he would score and he did then when Keatsy came on and scored it was really good to see but the boys gave him a bit of stick from his celebration. I think he nearly broke both of his legs doing it.
“I have struggled with injuries but I have learned to deal with it but I came back today and managed to help get us into the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup.
“The focus is the league, 100% but there is also a big chance to go and retain the Scottish Cup and whoever we get in the semi-final will look at us as underdogs but we are fully confident in that changing room that we will be more than a match for them.
“The Dundee United game on Friday is the big one for us. Make no mistake it’s a massive game. if we go there and win that puts a marker down for the rest of the season. We will go there full of confidence after today but we know it will be a hard game and we will be focused this week in training.”
Photo by John Preece
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.
