Hibs’ Head Coach Jack Ross believes that last night’s victory over Aberdeen which secured a third place finish has the added benefit of allowing him to shuffle his squad for Saturday’s game against Celtic.
Hibs went into the game knowing that one points would be enough to virtually guarantee third but the players went one better thanks to a superb goal from on-form Christian Doidge.
This is the best league position finish for Hibs since the days of Tony Mowbray and the golden generation’ of youngsters that would eventually win the CIS League Cup.
Speaking after the final whistle Ross said: “I’m delighted and really proud of the players and staff. It’s been a huge ambition since the start of the season and a huge amount of work has gone into it. I think you saw from the group tonight how much it meant to them. The club hasn’t finished there for 15-years so that meant something to them. The players should be proud of themselves and I’m not going to downplay how important it was for us to achieve that position. It’s a very happy dressing room.
“If we had lost it would have gone to the final day so it felt like a one-off game for us. I was probably critical of the group when we came here earlier in the season when we lost and our performance was a bit timid and our record here as a club hasn’t been good so in order to finish third in the league and challenge you need to be able to come to places like Pittodrie and win.
“It was just an overall good night for us. It’s an added bonus from tonight that we can use the squad on Saturday. We put a huge amount into the semi-final and tonight, emotionally and physically so we will utilise the full squad of Saturday.
“It’s now very much about our preparations for the 22nd May. It’s a massive game for us and an opportunity for us to make a good season an absolutely outstanding one.“
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.
