Hibs skipper in 'lie down' denial as Celtic clash puts Easter Road side back in Hearts title chase spotlight
Fans have mixed emotions over any result that will help old rivals close in on historic league triumph
Hibs skipper Joe Newell has addressed questions over the Easter Road side ever deciding to “lie down” against Celtic in order derail Hearts title hopes. And the club captain moved quickly shoot down any suggestions that he and his team-mates would give anything less than their all when the reigning champions visit Edinburgh on Sunday.
The midfielder, about to complete his seventh season as a Hibs player, admitted he understood why a lot of fans had mixed emotions about a game with the potential to help their nearest and dearest rivals towards a historic Scottish Premiership triumph. But he’s adamant that players have their own ambitions to fulfil.
“I completely get it,” said Newell. “Obviously, the fact that we're having the conversation shows that there's obviously feelings like that. But like I said, you can only control what you can control.
“Also, we're a group of professional athletes. We fight with each other over five-a-sides in training.
“So, if you think we're going to lie down in front of thousands of people, in front of the Sky cameras, you're wrong. We'll do what we know best, which is to win the game in football. It's as simple as that.
“Obviously, you see things and you hear things and stuff but the message throughout is obvious. Straight away, I can assure you there's no thinking of that.
“You play for this club, you're expected to do as well as we can and we've got our own targets, our own goals that we haven't achieved yet and we need to. So, in that respect, it's straightforward.”
Fans have approached midfielder
Asked if he’d had fans approach him to make their feelings known about the need to get the ‘right’ result on Sunday, a grinning Newell admitted: “Yeah. Yeah. But like I say, I get it. I completely get it.
“But we control what we can control. We've got a huge few games to play in terms of what we're playing for. We need European football.
“We want to finish as high as possible. To go back-to-back would be a good achievement for the club.
“That would be a great achievement considering how often we've done it in the last few years. So that's something that we're desperate for and that's in our control. So that's something we've just got to shut out the noise and go do what we intend to do.”
Insisting that no player could reach this level without a burning desire to win every bounce game or kick-about, the Englishman added: “I've not met one who has. Like I say, it's competitive edge all the time in training. You're professional athletes, we get paid a lot of money to do this.
“So we're doing a disservice to everyone if you roll over for what some fans want. And like I say, it's in your nature.
“You've done this since you were six, seven years old. You've been at school, playgrounds, training grounds, everywhere. So yeah, it'd be very hard to do.”