Ryan Porteous determined to bring the Scottish Cup back to Leith

Ryan Porteous watched from the stands when Hibs won the Scottish Cup in 2016 after also enduring defeats in their two previous finals and he is determined to bring the famous old trophy back to Leith and achieve legendry status like the players who played that glorious day.

Speaking at the pre-match press-conference the Scotland Under-21 international said: “The Rangers final kicked it off and you could see that the mentality of the club had kind of changed now that the hoodoo had gone.

“We’ve not been to the final since but we want to make that next step again. It’s time for new people to step up and become legends.”

“The highs and lows of Hibs, we’ve seen it all over the years. It’s never easy being a Hibs fan, but I think this season it’s been fantastic and if the Hibs fans were here I’m sure they would’ve really appreciated the hard work and good performances to put as at Hampden four times this season.

“I can only imagine what it would be like as a fan to go to Hampden four times in one season. Obviously, they’ve not all been good, but now we’ve put ourselves in a position to achieve success and bring silverware to the club.

“So, that’s our goal, our ambition, we want to bring the Scottish Cup back.”

Porteous also recalled his efforts to get to the celebrations the following day to catch a glimpse of the trophy on the open topped bus.

He continued: “I had a game for the Under-17s that day. It was a quick rush to play the game at the training centre and then get up to the parade with one of the other boys in the team. We caught it coming down Leith Walk so that was a great memory.

“It was just a mad rush. I don’t think we even had time for a shower. It was a case of kit on and right up to the parade because we were going to miss it.

“I’m actually surprised we still played that day. It was a mad day and one I look back on really fondly with how it panned out, getting up there that late but still managing to catch the celebrations. It was brilliant.”

The only disappointing feature of today’s final for Porteous is the absence of fans.

He added: “We just need to give the fans something back for all the effort they have put in with buying pay-per-view games and still supporting us whether they are at the game or not.

“Hopefully we can give them something to celebrate. It will be a great day, it’s just a shame our families can’t come.  There had to be ways to get fans there, but especially our families. They have to watch it from home just like everybody else.

“For the St Johnstone players as well, everyone wants their family at a national cup final. For us not to have that, when they had 20,000 fans at the FA Cup final down in England, kind of makes us look a bit stupid, but it is what it is. Our minds now are solely focused on trying to do the job on the pitch and hopefully celebrating with our families afterwards.”

“The 300 tickets we were going to get wouldn’t have been enough. It might have been two tickets each and some of the boys would need five or six if they wanted their kids, partners, mums and dads.

“It was probably a lose-lose because trying to decide who was going to be there would have probably annoyed more people than it would have benefited.

“It’s probably a better thing that we can’t have any in rather than just a handful. We probably needed all 300 for family members and friends never mind fans.”