Hibs’ Head Coach Jack Ross says he was ‘proud’ of his players character and strength of mind in yesterday’s Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Dundee United at Hampden.
Having lost two semis in the recent past, many questioned whether the pressure would get to the team who went into the match as favourites but they stood tall and deservedly reached the final.
Kevin Nisbet opened the scoring in the first-half with a tremendous finish after good work by Jackson Irvine and Christian Doidge made it 2-0 after the break, albeit from an offside position.
From then on the Hibs players managed the game out for the victory and after the final whistle Ross told Premier Sport: “I’m delighted and really proud of the players and staff. They have been brilliant all season for me. This was a tough game for us considering what had happened in the lats six months. Being here on two occasions so having that character and strength of mind to come here and produce a winning performance, I would have taken any sort of win but to play well and deserve to do it is great.
“We have had a good week. Some weeks you can sense it in training. We have had a clear week to prepare for it and right from early in the week I felt that the players were at it and we knew the team and we knew what we were going to do in the game.
“They were good in all aspects of the game. In possession we always carry a threat and the quality of the goals was really good today as well.
“Everything they achieve I am delighted for them. It’s my job to try and get the best from them so I just view it as me doing my job to the best of my ability to try and get them success.
“They do the hard part. They are the ones that go on the pitch and then there is my staff who do all the work behind the scenes that people don’t see.
“When you lose semi-finals there are fine margins all the time and that’s been the case for us and today we have came out of the right side of the margins.
“We just have to come back here in two-weeks-time and do it again. We don’t have much time to enjoy it as it’s a quick turn around before the cup final but it’s a brilliant end of the season for us. “
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.
