Hibs’ Head Coach Jack Ross is waiting to see whether influential teenager Josh Doig and Chris Cadden will be available for this afternoon’s Scottish Cup quarter-final against Motherwell.
Cadden picked up a knock last Saturday and has missed Hibs’ last two games whilst Doig hurt his back in Sunday’s victory over Stranraer.
Photos Ian Jacobs
Ross is more confident that Doig will be available than Cadden but he is delighted to have long-serving left-back Lewis Stevenson waiting in the wings.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference Ross said: “Hopefully he (Doig) will be available for Saturday .He had a back spasm and it was just too quick a turnaround to be ready (for Livingston) but I’m lucky that I have Lewy (Lewis Stevenson)who was brilliant, but, hopefully, Josh will be back in the squad because we were a little bit thin and a couple of subs down.
“Chris might be a little bit more doubtful. We will see if he is ready. We were hoping he might be okay [for Livingston] but he had a little setback on Wednesday morning so we will have to see how he is. I am more hopeful about Josh than Chris at the moment.”
Ryan Porteous believes that achieving European football next season is something to be proud of and Hibs are now guaranteed at least a fourth place finish but the defender is aiming higher.
He added: “We knew what it meant on Wednesday but we didn’t make a big deal of it after the game or in the dressing room because that is not what this group is all about.
“On Thursday the manager told us ‘Listen, I know we didn’t really talk about it after the game but fourth is a big achievement, getting Europe etc, but now that’s secured, we move onto the goals we set ourselves at the start of the season’.
“Our goal has always been to finish third. That is what we want and there will be celebrations when that happens. The club has not done that since 2004-05, so we’ll celebrate that if it were to happen, but we all know there is a lot of football still to be played.”
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.
