Hibs manager Dean Gibson will “respect” upcoming lower league opposition on Sunday

Hibs will host East Fife in the Scottish Cup fifth round at the Meadowbank Stadium on Sunday with both teams aiming to progress into the quarter-finals.

The Edinburgh side put together an impressive cup run earlier in the campaign as they reached the SWPL final. Now Hibs aim to repeat the success with East Fife becoming the next hurdle. Despite of the level of opposition changing, Hibs manager Dean Gibson insists he will treat this game no different to any other.

“We will prepare for the game no different” Gibson told the Edinburgh Evening News. “We will do our homework, analysis them and give them every bit of respect. There is no team we will ever not give respect too. We will prepare properly, the players will prepare properly and we will tactically prepare them as well. We will look at them in ways we think we can hurt them but also the ways they can potentially hurt us. We won’t disrespect any team and we will prepare for them the same way we prepared for Rangers.”

This year, the Scottish Cup semi-finals and final will be hosts at Hampden Park for the first time. It is part of the 150th anniversary of the national team and 50th anniversary of the women’s first national game.

Dean Gibson's side was knocked out by Partick Thistle in the quarter-finals last season. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

“The fact that the semi final and the final are now at Hampden Park is brilliant”, Gibson added “At the moment, we are just concentrating on getting past East Fife. You don’t know who you are going to get in the quarter-finals but we have to get past East Fife first. After doing that we will take on the quarter-finals.”