Christian Doidge was persuaded to join Hibs due to the prospect of playing in cup finals and today he gets the chance to help the club achieve that goal when they meet Dundee United in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park this afternoon.
“That’s one of the reasons I decided to move up, seeing the scenes on YouTube of David scoring the winner and the celebrations after. That’s something you really want to be part of. The lads are quite humble, they don’t really shout it from the rooftops, but everyone is very aware of the magnitude of this game and the occasion if you win it.
“That was one of the things Graeme Mathie showed us before we signed, to show us the size of the club and how much the competition means to the club. You don’t play in many finals in your career so hopefully we can get through this one.”
“I enjoy the cup competitions, I always have, even when I was playing down south. I don’t know what it is, it’s just something that has always been really good for me. Hopefully I will get another goal and help get us to the final.”
Doidge is taking nothing for granted however and despite Hibs having had the better of the encounters in the league this season, the Welshman is anticipating a hard game.
He added: “Every game we’ve played against Dundee United has been very difficult. Their rotation in midfield is very good and the lads up front are very sharp. All three have scored a lot of goals in their careers, so we know their strengths and weaknesses and hopefully we can get the result.
“Our results have been very good against them but we know the cup’s a one-off game at Hampden and we’re really looking forward to it.
“With their front three, it’s going to be down to our lads at the back to try to stop them. That’s going to be a very difficult task but if we can keep it as tight as we can, us lads at the front can hopefully do the job.”
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.
