Hibs goal hero making child's play of challenge as ex-Newcastle star relishes return clash with Rangers

To the trio of youngsters hidden somewhere in a travelling support of nearly 3000 at McDiarmid Park, Dwight Gayle will always be just dad. But the fact that he was able to score a pretty decent goal for kids Indie, Denver and Oakley definitely added something to the occasion.

As he braces himself for a different sort of challenge at Easter Road tomorrow, with the children back home in England but more members of the extended clan in attendance for the visit of Rangers, Gayle – a player not short of big game experience at major footballing institutions – genuinely seems excited by the prospect of making family memories in his final season of professional football. Having followed up scoring the winner at Tynecastle on Boxing Day with a vital equaliser in Thursday’s new year fixture at St Johnstone, he’s putting together a nice little highlight reel.

The former Newcastle and Crystal Palace striker, who made his Hibs debut in September’s unlucky 1-0 loss to Rangers at Ibrox, said: “Yeah, for me, one of the big things is my kids. For them to be able to come and experience their dad playing is a big thing for me. So, it makes it a bit more special to be able to score some goals in front of them.

“They’re seven, six and three, so old enough to remember. Hopefully I’m not too bad and they think their dad’s OK!

“I think they were just in with the regular fans. I was looking out for them, but I didn't manage to see them. I was waving in anticipation that they'd see me somewhere.

“They're going back down the road. But some my family are coming up to Sunday’s game to be fair. So, hopefully they bring some good luck for us.”

Plenty of experienced Premier League pros have experienced a health dose of culture shock on arrival in the Scottish Premiership. Especially when pitched against both Rangers and Celtic.

Gayle, who has declared his intent to retire at the end of the current campaign, said: “For me, it's been fantastic. It's one of the big reasons why I wanted to experience it and to come up here. Loved every minute of it and long may it continue.

“It's the same for all the boys in the dressing room. These are the games that we love to play and we're desperate to be on the pitch for. So, I'm sure whoever starts on the weekend will be buzzing and we'll be trying to put in the best performance.

“Obviously, I thought that we played really well at Ibrox. We had some good chances to get a draw. I thought the boys did really well.

“We’ve obviously got them on Sunday and they're going to be buzzing off the win against Celtic. So, it's going to be definitely a different sort of performance that we're going to need to dig in for - and we're going to need the fans to get behind us.

“Yeah, they’ll be right up for it from the start. But we're not worried.

“Obviously, they're a good side, but we're in a good position ourselves. We're a lot more confident and we've picked up some good results over the last few weeks. So, it's something to look forward to and hopefully we can get another positive result.”

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Having taken a while to get up to match sharpness, free agent signing Gayle has developed into a classic impact sub, coming off the bench to make and take chances. Had he been a couple of weeks further along in his training programme when thrown in against Rangers in Govan, he may well have scored late on in that narrow defeat.

Easy does it - Gayle with a cheeky 'calm down' celebration in front of Hearts fans after scoring the winner at Tynecastle. | SNS Group

“I feel I'm the sort of player that performs better when the team's performing better,” he said, when asked about his development since that debut. “I think the team's definitely doing that now. I think we're starting to learn about each other.

“Obviously, with a lot of new players, we were getting used to it a bit. But now we're starting to know each other's games and we've got some great crossers of the ball. That's something I thrive off.

“Against St Johnstone, I didn't really touch the ball other than scoring the goal, so it was a bit of a lucky one for me. But yeah, it was nice to help the team. I thought we put in some really good balls into the box, and it just unfortunately didn't really go in for us.

“Of course, we look at the table and see that we've maybe missed an opportunity. But at the same time, from where we've come from, we’re still building for a long season.”