David Gray believes tomorrow’s match against St Mirren has a “cup final” feeling to it.
Hibs head coach knows that if his side better the result of Aberdeen – who face Celtic on the same evening – then they will confirm third place in the William Hill Premiership table.
Hibs come into this off the back of a defeat against Celtic at the weekend, but Gray explained to Hibs TV that his message to the players has been crystal clear since Saturday afternoon.
“The message straight after the final whistle at Celtic Park was that full focus needs to be on winning at Paisley.
“It’s a difficult place to go, but if we go and win the game, it doesn’t matter what anyone else does; that’s a great place to be in.
“The job is not done, and it’s a massive push to go now.
“Training this week has been good. Recovery was always going to be in important, and everyone came in on Monday in a really good place.
“These games are the ones you want to be involved in, they’re like cup finals, and I’m looking forward to it.”
St Mirren, though, are fighting for something themselves, just two points behind Dundee United, and they know three points on Wednesday would go a long way as they try to seal European football next season.
“They’re in really good form,” admitted Gray. “They’re very well coached and are hard to play against, we’ve experienced that ourselves this season.
“They’re the only team in the league this season we’ve not managed to beat, so that’s an added incentive for the players.
“It would be fitting to finish third by beating every single team in the league, but it’s not going to be easy. We will have to match their intensity, aggression, hard work, and if we can do that, we have good players that can cause them problems.
“We’re full of confidence going into the game, but we’re mindful that it will be a tough test.”
Heading into Wednesday, Gray will have a similar squad available to him, with the welcomed addition of Hyeokkyu Kwon, who was ineligible against his parent club Celtic.
“It’s the last week of the season and everyone’s available apart from the two long-term ones in Joe (Newell) and Rudi (Molotnikov).
“Everyone is desperate to play and to make an impact. It’s a good headache for me. It’s a massive game, everyone needs to stick together, and we need to make sure we come out on top.”
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.
