A YEAR ago this weekend, Hibernian and Kilmarnock took centre stage when they met in the CIS Cup final at Hampden. The clubs will be out of the limelight when they play at Easter Road tomorrow, but victory for the home team could at least be a springboard to greater things.
Hibs' 5-1 triumph last March was their first trophy for 16 years, and an undoubted highlight of their season. Their inconsistency, however, meant that they finished sixth in the SPL, well off the race for European places.
This time, thanks to the
extra backbone they have found since Mixu Paatelainen became manager, they are very much in the running. In fact, if results go the right way tomorrow they could end the afternoon in third place – an implausibly lofty perch just a couple of months ago, when they briefly fell to ninth place.
The CIS Cup win is inked into the record books, and the style in which the trophy was won will long be remembered. All the same, it was a one-off, whereas under Paatelainen there are at least signs of sustained achievement.
Scott Brown, Steven Whittaker, David Murphy and Ivan Sproule have all moved on from the team that John Collins selected to begin the Hampden match on 18 March, and the first three at least have not been replaced by players of equivalent quality. The squad as a whole, however, looks more balanced now, more competitive when the going gets tough, and more able to adapt their game plan to the circumstances.
Colin Nish, who played for Kilmarnock in the final, has taken some of the weight off Steven Fletcher up front since joining during the January transfer window. Martin Canning has proved a useful addition in defence, and John Rankin and Ian Murray have given Hibs extra quality in midfield.
Murray's sending-off during Wednesday night's 1-0 win over Motherwell, however, has added to Paatelainen's problems in the middle. The former club captain is suspended for tomorrow's match, and Merouane Zemmama, Brian Kerr and Ross Chisholm are all doubtful with knocks. Guillaume Beuzelin has yet to come back from a knee injury, although Dean Shiels returns from suspension.
"We've got plenty of players for those positions," the manager said, before insisting that whoever played could not afford to be over-confident because of Hibs' recent good run or Kilmarnock's lowly standing.
"We've closed the gap (on third place], but nothing changes. We need to make sure we do the right stuff."
If Rangers and Celtic reach the Scottish Cup final, the fourth-placed team in the SPL could go into the Uefa Cup as well as the third. But that possibility will not distract Paatelainen from his principal aim, which is to get Hibs into Europe because of their own efforts in the league.
"If we're fourth at the end of the season and that gives us a Uefa Cup place, we'll be happy. But it's out of our control. We just look at our matches and what we do."
The possibility that Gretna will fail to fulfil their fixtures, and that their results could consequently be deleted from the records, is a worrying one for the fans of Hibs and Motherwell in particular. If every point gained against Gretna were scratched, those two clubs would lose significantly, especially compared to their closest competitor, Dundee United. Again, though, Paatelainen is disinclined to fret about something he cannot influence.
"I don't think their results will be scrapped," he said. "I'd be very disappointed if that was the solution. Why punish teams that do well? I think there is a solution there that would be logical."
Asked what that solution was, the manager said he had no special inside information. "Let the people who decide that decide it. I know nothing – I'm from Finland."
His nationality is not a matter of dispute, but his activities since becoming Hibs manager suggest he is far from knowing nothing about how to run a football club.
The full article contains 680 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
