Exclusive:'Everybody's talking' about Hibs rivals - but star aims to change conversation in 'massive' Euro eliminator
Assist king Nicky Cadden still chasing goal breakthrough - and would love to bag winner at Fir Park
Under the radar. Watching on as rivals take the plaudits. But still driven by that competitor’s desire to win – and to make sure that the other guy loses.
All of the above is true of both Hibs as a team and Nicky Cadden as a slightly frustrated contributor to the Easter Road cause. In a season of stop-start progress and infuriating regression at key moments, with injury playing a major factor, this feels like a crucial week for individual and collective aspirations.
Motherwell at Fir Park on Saturday represents an all-or-nothing opportunity for David Gray’s men, who currently sit six points behind the side currently occupying fourth place in the Scottish Premiership. Taking into account all the ramifications surrounding European qualification, the stakes could hardly be higher.
Extra hype around Motherwell
There is also, within the home dressing room at East Mains, a desire to put Hibs front and centre of all those breathless discussions about the remarkable, stunning, never-before-seen exploits of swashbuckling teams up-ending all expectations in the country’s top flight. Having finished third in remarkable style last season, the Hibees somehow managing to finish above Motherwell this year would certainly say something about their consistency and quality, right?
Cadden nods in agreement, saying: “Exactly. Everybody's talking about Motherwell. Everybody’s talking about what a great season Hearts are having, how good they are. Rightly so.
“But we’re just going about our own business. We’re just doing what we’re doing. And we’ve already got more points than we had at this stage last season.
“We ended up third last season, which as obviously great. This season, you never know what could happen.
“This week is massive. We obviously want to catch Motherwell. They're the team ahead of us.
“And you never know. We’re all disappointed about only getting a draw against Livingston – but that could turn out to be a massive point at the end of the season. We just need to give it our all this week.”
Cadden never gives less than everything in pursuit of goal contributions. And he does have five assists to his name for the season so far, putting him on track to at least match last year’s total of seven; he put in more than enough telling crosses in last weekend’s goalless home draw with Livi, without getting his reward.
Five assists, no goals - so far - for Cadden
But the 29-year-old, who missed most of December with a calf injury that saw him limp out of games against both Celtic and Hearts as he struggled to regain full fitness, will have to go some if he’s to match last season’s total of five goals scored. With eight games of the season remaining, the free-kick expert and sweet striker of thunderous shots is yet to find the net. A particular sore point for Cadden.
“I've not score, no,” he said, quickly adding: “I know, I know … Aye, I suppose I’m on free-kicks. But it feels like I haven’t had one for a long, long time. You need to win a free-kick before you can score one! I’ll need to go and win one myself …
“In terms of creating chances, I’ll just keep putting the crosses in, hoping someone puts one away. I thought one of them would have went in against Livingston, but that's my job and that's what I get told to do. I want to create chances and sadly one of them couldn't go in at the weekend.”
Deployed at left wingback, Cadden will expect to do more defending against Motherwell than he did in an absolute brute of a game against Livingston. Yet he’ll also expect to get more space to run into, when he’s not facing a team sitting deep in two banks of five and simply giving up possession.
“Obviously, it's hard to win a game of football, and that showed against Livingston,” he said. “But I just feel like we should have just been better in the final third, no matter how they lined up.
“We score one of the million chances we had, the game ends so different. I think we then go and win that by two, three, four.
“It was just one of the ones that just got away with us. We need to be better against Motherwell.
“Yeah, of course it will be a completely different. It's hard when there's ten men behind the ball, basically, and we need to try and break them down. But we still had enough chances to beat Livingston.
“I felt like we had a good few possessions and a few good passages, which should have ended in a goal. But yeah, we just need to be better in that final third.”
The team finishing fifth in Scotland’s top flight will only get a crack at UEFA competition if Celtic win the Scottish Cup. Having been in a similar movie last season, Hibs don’t want to be relying on someone doing them a favour – or two - at Hampden for a second year running.
If Gray’s men are to guarantee themselves a spot in those European qualifiers early next season, they’ll need to catch and overtake Motherwell to finish fourth. This weekend’s trip to Lanarkshire, with one more meeting of the clubs to follow after the split, is an all-or-nothing encounter for the visitors – who must find a way to change the conversation.