Jack Ross determined to go ‘one step further’ as Hibs return to Hampden for another semi-final showdown
Jack Ross #JackRoss
Even as the season got underway, Hibs manager Jack Ross had the feeling that his squad were capable of delivering on his desire for success. Nothing he has seen since has convinced him otherwise.
While results and performances have occasionally ruffled the nerves of some on the outside looking in, the Hibs boss has remained relentlessly unflappable. Tethered by a sense of realism and strong professional and personal relationships with his players, when isolated displays have disappointed him, he has always, he says, got the correct response from the men in his charge.
Which sees them sitting third in the Premiership and gearing up for their second cup semi final since returning from lockdown.
“When I came to the club initially, I didn’t want to tread water and just bob about. I wanted to try to bring success to the club and I don’t think it is unrealistic for Hibs to be seen to be challenging to win cups every single year.
“We might not do that, but we should always go into a season believing that we can. I felt we had begun to put together a squad that was capable of doing that.
“I think it felt realistic to push the players towards that and there has been nothing through the course of the season that has changed my mind in that respect.”
There have been blips – only natural, says Ross, who knows teams rarely negotiate an entire season without blemish – including the agonising Scottish Cup semi-final defeat they experienced at the hands of derby rivals Hearts in their most recent visit to the national stadium. But, if those dips in form caused Ross to confront the difficulties faced by a squad purposely kept slight in numbers as he fostered a tight unit and stability, but opened his men up to fatigue as a full and imposing fixture list took its toll, they did not dilute Ross’ belief in the ability of his players or persuade him to lessen his expectations for the season.
To address the issue of strength in depth, he has moved swiftly in the transfer window, and with reinforcements on board and other key players returning from injury lay-offs, he heads into the latest head to head with St Johnstone, this time on cup duty, with a cup final place rather than three points at stake, confident that his men can deliver.
It is a belief borne of the season’s achievements thus far.
League positions are a measure of a side’s ability to deliver consistently, and just as it has earned the teams around them, outfits like Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen, a degree of respect and an certain aura of superiority in pre-match betting, rather than shrink away from the favourites tag that has been bestowed on them, Hibs should embrace it. It serves as a reminder of where they stand in the season’s rankings, their ability to push through to the latter stages of knockout competitions more often than not in the past five years, and the fact that they remain unbeaten by Callum Davidson’s side this term. Add to that the experience of playing such a big game at an “eerie” and virtually empty national stadium and the feeling of losing there that fuels them and, while they know how little all that actually means when the whistle sounds, they should walk tall in the knowledge they have earned that label.
“I think it’s about achieving success. I don’t think any of them are thinking about righting a wrong from a previous [semi-final] defeat. I think it’s about them wanting to win something,” says Ross.
“We’ve got players who have won trophies, but I’ve got someone like Jamie Murphy who has had a brilliant career but not won anything. He’s won a promotion but hasn’t won a medal, so that drive and hunger, that goes through the players, to win something is there. It’s a collective drive to be successful.
“The disappointment and the pain we felt after that semi was because we believed we could have gone on to win the cup. Now we have an opportunity relatively quickly to try to do that again. You don’t always get that opportunity so quickly but we have put ourselves right in the mix again and there is a determination to go that one step further and hopefully two steps further.”
As a player and a manager, Ross has also suffered near misses but he says the hope of going all the way and realising the dream should always outweigh the risk of further heartache if things don’t transpire as planned.
“When you get closer to success, you want to get that step further, you want to win trophies. It is the most enjoyable part of this job; that opportunity to have tangible success.” And whether that opportunity comes at Easter Road, at Hampden, or in any stadium around the globe, the lure is huge.
“It doesn’t come down to the stadium, it comes down to the chase to go down in history and for everyone at the club to say ‘we won silverware’. For a lot of clubs in Scotland, that doesn’t happen as regularly as it does for a couple of others.
“It does transform the perspective of your season because you have achieved that tangible success and you have memories of that season and people’s wider opinion of it becomes even more positive. We are aware of that, but the main driver is just about this quest to win silverware.”
Jack Ross was speaking to promote Premier Sports’ live and exclusive coverage of the Betfred Cup match Hibernian v St Johnstone on Saturday from 5pm. Premier Sports is available on Sky, Virgin TV and the Premier Player. Prices start from £9.99 per month.
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