Exclusive - Hibs new boy sets trophy target after stylish start to season

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Early days. Limited opposition. And there are still about a million different ways that things could go wrong for Hibs, as any long-suffering supporter could testify.

Yet anyone watching David Gray’s team play with a bit of swagger and steel during their first two competitive fixtures of season 2024-25 can only have been impressed. Possibly even a little excited by the performances of new players still settling into the panicky pace of Scottish football.

When Warren O’Hora talks confidently and calmly about Hibs contending to lift the Premier Sports Cup, the Irishman’s words feel like an extension of his cool and composed on-field efforts in the small sample of games available since his arrival. A central defender very definitely pitched towards the ball-playing end of the spectrum, already a nice balance to the more no-nonsense style of fellow new boy Marvin Ekpiteta, O’Hora wasn’t surprised to hear Gray setting the bar high for a team who finished eighth last season. With the League Cup already a target.

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“Obviously I haven’t been here that long,” said the 25-year-old. “But I’ve been told that, from the first minute I walked in the door.

“This is a club and a team who should feel like a trophy is one of our targets. And it is – this season.

“Hopefully the fans can see what we’re trying to do. And I hope everyone else looking on sees what we’re building.

“But the most important thing is how we feel in that dressing room. And we have a firm belief that we can go and do something really good this season.

“The gaffer has instilled that confidence in us. Him and his staff are working hard every day to get us to the standard, making sure we fight for each other.

“His pre-season was really tough as part of that. We got exactly what we wanted out of it, and now the results are coming together for us.”

Elgin were battered 5-0 at Borough Briggs in the Group C opener last weekend, with Queen’s Park then falling to a 5-1 loss at Easter Road on Tuesday night. With Kelty away to follow this weekend and Peterhead at home rounding off the first stage of Premier Sports Cup action, Hibs are already well on their way to the last 16 – two games from Hampden.

O’Hora knows tougher tests lie ahead. But he can’t help but feel enthused by the start to his time in the SPFL, pointing out: “It’s massive that we’re getting wins early in the season. To see results of the work you’re doing in training every day, it helps everyone.

“The gaffer and his staff have been doing everything to get us ready, to get us playing the way he wants. And hopefully it’s showing in how we’re playing already.

“Of course, the opposition we’re facing at the moment aren’t in our league, so we understand that people will be taking that into account. But I think we deserve credit for the way we’ve played.

“We’ve certainly been professional in how we’ve approached every game. We’ve treated every game in this competition as if we’re playing in the cup final.

“That’s where we want to get through in this tournament, to the final. The results, and scoring 10 goals, that shows we’re doing some things right.

“We also got a couple of clean sheets in pre-season. So it was actually a little disappointing to lose a late goal against Queen’s Park.

“But that’s the standard we’re setting for ourselves. To be disappointed at conceding one goal in the last four or five games is the standard in the dressing room now. That’s what the gaffer has implemented. To see the results and the confidence in the boys, to go and get ten goals, with the defence playing pretty well, it shows we’re all on board with it.”

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O’Hora has already demonstrated a degree of comfort on the ball, a good range of passing and – on at least one occasion against Queen’s Park – a daring streak that might see him go galloping forward to break the lines, if and when the circumstances dictate. If Gray might occasionally tell his centre-half to dial back the sense of adventure, the gaffer isn’t about to ignore such an obvious ability to discomfort opponents.

“Yeah, well, I’d like to think it’s one of my strong points,” said O’Hora, when asked about playing out from the back, the former MK Dons player adding: “The boys in front of me make it a lot easier. I did go on one run. It’s one of those – you have to make decisions quickly, and I thought that was the right call at the time.

“But really, I have to give credit to the boys in front of me for creating space. We are all working together as a team, everyone buying into it.

“The manager wants us to play the game as it comes. If the opposition drop off and let us play out, we will. We’ll hurt them that way. If they don’t, we’ve still got the players to go and do the business.”