Hibs star Junior Exclusive: 'Aberdeen will always be special to me - but I'm on a mission to defeat Dons.'

The northern lights of old Aberdeen will always hold a special place in the heart of a much-travelled footballing veteran. Three months was all it took for Junior Hoilett to develop an attachment to the Dons – and to recognise that Scotland’s elite division was a suitable environment for his talents.

As the vastly experienced Canadian international returns to Pittodrie this weekend, then, he’ll undoubtedly feel a warm glow of recognition and affection for a venue that has caused Hibs a fair few troubles over the years. His ambition now is to generate more happy memories of the old place.

The former Blackburn, QPR, Cardiff and Reading star, instrumental in the vital equaliser as David Gray’s men fought back to beat Ross County 3-1 at Easter Road last weekend, believes Hibs are building enough momentum to put any opponent on the back foot. He’s backing them to remain on track this Saturday.

Smiling as he talked about the club where he enjoyed such a short but impactful stint last season, Hoilett – who already has one eye on the Boxing Day clash with Hearts, obviously - admitted: “Yeah, of course, Aberdeen will always be a special place for me. My time there was good.

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“I had a short stint - but it was a very memorable short stint there. The fans were great for me, and it was a great first taste of Scottish football, showing me what it was all about. So it will forever be a memorable place.

“But I don’t have any inside track on them, unfortunately! I’ll do some research on them this week.

“What I do know is, everywhere you go in this league, you can gain an edge by keeping the home crowd quiet. You just have to remain professional and stick to the game plan. Stick to the manager's tactics and game plan to go out and actually execute a result.

“Going back to Aberdeen, it'll be a good game. They're strong. They’re up there in the league for a reason.

“But we have the momentum right now to get the win, after beating Ross County. We know we can go out there and get a result.”

A trip to Aberdeen so close to Christmas is nobody’s idea of an ideal piece of festive fixture scheduling. If fans might balk at the expense and inconvenience, players have long since learned to roll with the match list at this time of year.

Hoilett, who has been living away from his home town of Brampton, Ontario, since signing on with the Blackburn academy at the age of just 13, is now a 34-year-old with many a festive period under his belt. It’s often the busiest time of the year.

“I’ve had this for a very long time, especially with the English schedule being so packed sometimes,” he said, adding: “It’s not the best time of the year for us footballers. Especially away from family, it's quite tough, but it's part of the job.

“At least video calls have been brilliant in recent years. It was tough when I was very young, just making phone calls back home to family, although I usually had a few family members around to make it better. It’s part of the job. And it’s worthwhile if we get the results.”

Hibs will feel more confident in their chances of getting something from this weekend’s contest than they did, for instance, before the recent 3-3 draw with the Dons at Easter Road. The nature of that hard-fought fixture, with the home side coming back at the very death, has been cited by Gray and his players as a turning point – the night when they started to believe in themselves again.

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Since picking up that single point, Hibs have beaten Motherwell away by three goals to nil, suffered a very unlucky loss to the reigning champions at Celtic Park – and seen off Ross County in Edinburgh last weekend. If there was an element of struggle to that most recent win, with a penalty miss and some late drama adding to the tension, Gray’s men feel better for getting the job done.

Hoilett is hitting form at the right time for Hibs. | SNS Group

“It was a major boost to win that game,” said Hoilett, the winger/attacker – who set up Dwight Gayle’s equaliser with a bit of patient play and an accurate cross – adding: “It gives us momentum going into the next games. We've been playing well lately, and three points is a big boost mentally, give us confidence to go into the next run of games coming up.

“Even when Ross County where throwing bodies into the box late on, I had faith that we could hold on, of course. That's what we've been working on in training ground. The boys stood strong and defended the corners and whatever they chucked at us in the later stages of the game.

“It was great to go on and get the third goal to settle the nerves. But yeah, we've been working hard in training. And we know we’ve we still got some more work to do to bring it into the next match.”

Hoilett, who put in the cross leading to Myko Kuharevich’s opening goal in the 1-1 draw with Hearts back in October, added: “We want to get the win at Aberdeen, obviously. And then, of course, it’s the derby. I’m looking forward to that.

“I’ve played in a few derbies over the years. Cardiff versus Swansea, Blackburn against Burnley. And now the Edinburgh derby. They’re always special days.”