Nick Montgomery’s Hibs travel to Glasgow looking for their first win away against Rangers in more than five years.
After just a month in charge Saturday presents the first match against either of the Old Firm for Montgomery and Hibs fans will be eager to see whether the Head Coach persists with the attacking mentality deployed thus far.
Rangers will have a fresh look as new manager Phillippe Clement takes his place in the Ibrox dugout for the first time replacing Michael Beale who was sacked at the start of the month.
When asked for his thoughts on the arrival of the former Monaco manager at Rangers, Montgomery said to PLZ Soccer: “I am not really bothered about them, it’s about us preparing for the game.”
Hibs go into Saturday on a six-game unbeaten run, their last outing was the dramatic derby draw at Tynecastle where a minute of magic by Elie Youan earned the team a point before the international break.
Dylan Levitt, Rocky Bushiri, Lewis Miller and Martin Boyle all returned to training this week after they were away on International duty with their respective nations, it was a particularly successful break for Miller who made his debut for Australia against England at Wembley.
For the returnees and their teammates, attention turns to Ibrox where Hibs have had a pretty dismal record in recent years, their last win in this fixture coming courtesy of a John McGinn strike and a Jamie McLaren penalty in March 2018.
Montgomery previewed the game with Hibs TV saying: “We are not going to be naive thinking that we can go all-out attack, we will play the way that we play, we attack with ten and defend with ten.”
The Hibs boss also gave an update on the squad’s fitness saying: “Jojo Wollacott has been back in full training for a couple weeks, we didn’t want to rush him, but he managed to play 90 minutes last week in a bounce game…which is a real positive.”
In Saturdays match Rangers will be hoping for the bounce that often comes with appointing a new manager whereas a Hibs squad high on confidence will be relishing the opportunity to spoil Clements Ibrox inauguration.
Masters Student currently studying Sports Journalism at Edinburgh Napier University.
