Hibs’ midfielder Stephen McGinn is anticipating a tough game against Hamilton Academical this afternoon but is determined to secure the victory that would see the club leapfrog Celtic into second place in the table.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference ahead of the fixture McGinn said: “We are going into a tough game tomorrow but the carrot’s there to go second in the league. It might only be for 24-hours but we want to keep pushing here and keep striving to be better and what an opportunity it is for us.
“It shows how well we have done as a squad. It’s not September, it’s December and I know Celtic have a lot of games in hand but the carrot is there to go second and we don’t want to let that go past us.”
McGinn made Scottish football history last week after his goal against Motherwell meant that he was one of three brothers, including John and Paul, to have scored for two separate teams, Hibs and St Mirren but he pointed out that their experiences at Easter Road have been different as they all arrived at different stages of their careers.
He continued: “It’s funny how we have all played for Hibs now and St Mirren. For me personally Hibs are a massive club and when Jack (Ross) got the job here and when I got the opportunity I jumped at it.
“I’ve come to Hibs at a different time of my career than when John and Paul joined but I’m equally enjoying it as much as they both have.
“With all the cut-backs, Jack trusts me to help out with other things but I’m here mainly as a player.
“We’ve lost a lot of staff members so if he’s needing someone to help with the shooting or just generally helping the manager then I’m available. Coaching is something I’ve always thought about. I have my ‘B’ licence and I’ve always been taking notes about how previous managers go about things.
“I thought I’d finish my career at St Mirren but I’m loving the new challenge.
“I start every week being as good as I can be in training and be in the manager’s thoughts for the weekend but as I said I joined Hibs at a different stage of my career than John. He joined as a young player and wanted to push on and Paul joined at the peak of his career so it’s different for me.
“It’s not that I don’t want to play every single week bit I am content if I can help this team achieve where they want to be at the end of the season and be a part of semi-finals and cup finals and get this squad back into Europe, it’s probably just a dream for me to be part of this club.
“I haven’t scored many goals in my career so I am wary that if I score from now on it may be my last ever goal so I enjoyed it on Saturday night and it wasn’t until the texts and tweets came in about all three of us scoring for St Mirren and Hibs that it sinks in what we are achieving as brothers.
I’m so thankful that I have managed to get a goal to complete that trilogy.
John is always quick onto twitter but it wasn’t something that I’d thought about. I’d have loved to have scored more goals in my career I’m just glad I did it. John has set the bar so high so small things like that aren’t as significant.”
Speculation as to Neil Lennon’s future at Celtic this week has seen Jack Ross’s name mentioned as a possible replacement and McGinn is not surprised given the ability of his Head Coach.
He added: “Jack (Ross) has been amazing for me and got my career going again. The 18-months I played under him at St Mirren was probably a favourite time in my career. If you speak to any player here or at any club he has worked at he’s such a good manager to play for and he brings out the best in me and I’m probably more used to it than anyone.
“The season we won the Championship there was a different team linked with hm every week. It comes with the success so there is always going to be speculation surrounding him.
“I think he is used to it now. If you speak to him personally, I think the Sunderland experience of being a manager at such a big club with so much noise around that I think he is used to it now.”
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.
