'Hibs fans started to believe' - Gray Exclusive on Rangers rivalry rooted in classic head-to-head clashes
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Hibs against Rangers is a rivalry that goes deeper than the record books. Altogether one-sided in terms of black-and-white results over recent seasons, certainly when it comes to league fixtures, there is ALWAYS an edge to this fixture.
Ahead of tomorrow’s high noon meeting at Easter Road, David Gray hopes to harness some of that intensity of feeling to good effect. And, while he will always remain a little bashful about discussing his part in one very special day in the history of this contest, he certainly boast a degree of expertise on the subject.
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Hide AdAs a veteran of the Championship years, the Scottish Cup-winning captain believes some of the added oomph can be traced back to those campaigns when both clubs were fighting to win promotion to the top flight. In that season to end all seasons of 2015-16, you might recall, Hibs beat Rangers TWICE at Easter Road before going onto break their Cup curse by defeating the Glasgow side at Hampden.
Gray, whose personal record against Rangers includes scoring the opener in a stunning 4-0 league win in the previous season of second-tier football for both sides, said: “Within the rivalry at that time, you know, those were two teams in very different stages of where they were. They were both in that transition period, finding themselves in difficult situations in terms of not being in the top league. But you play each other that many times - and they were also very competitive games.
“And I think that probably did add something to the rivalry, because then you started to build that little bit of expectation, going into the games knowing that you can get a result. And I think that's something that developed over time.
“The fans started to believe it as well. And I think that's something we need going into this weekend - everybody needs to believe you can get the result.
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Hide Ad“I mean, what makes it so special? Listen … there's obviously the history that goes with it, the fixture.
“I think in recent years we've always performed well against them, they're always quite tight games. And I think coming to Easter Road there'll be an expectation for the fans and the way we've been playing recently that we've got an opportunity to try and get a real positive result. And that's what the full focus has to be.
“Naturally, when you play against the big teams in the league, they'll have the support that come with them as well and the expectation that comes with that. So that adds to the atmosphere for the players, the fans that we'll have coming to the game.
“It's live on the TV as well, which I'll obviously add to that as well. So there’s going to be a feeling that it’s not just another game, even if we need to approach it in exactly the same way as we would for any other fixture.”
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Hide AdAlthough Hibs have a recent-ish League Cup semi-final win over Rangers at Hampden on their record, it’s actually been a long time – 2018 - since they bagged a league win over the Ibrox outfit.
Yes, they were unlucky to lose 1-0 in Govan back in September. But that was an EIGHTH consecutive defeat to Rangers. How does Gray change that record?
“I always speak about belief before we go into this sort of a game, where we know the expectation will be on them to win, of course,” said the rookie head coach. “But we have expectations on ourselves to get a big result.
“You need to believe you can go and do it. If you don't believe you'll do it, then you're starting off on the back foot right away. So that would be the message to the players, to make sure that we'll do everything we can to go and get that positive result.
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“And I believe we can. If you think back to how the game at Ibrox went, obviously we missed a penalty at a big moment just before half-time.
“Rangers had a lot of the ball, but I thought we had the better chances in the game. And then even right late on in the game, we had a couple of big chances to try and get at least a point. I think we probably deserved a point, at least from the game.
“So the players can take a lot of confidence from that. The fact we've played them already, and played well against them.
“It's a very different game, obviously, at Easter Road than it is at Ibrox as well. And it's one that the players should all look forward to.
“But one thing we do know is every player will need to be 100 per cent the best they can be. If we get that, it gives us another chance to win the game.”