Jack Ross has say on Stranraer-Hibs rescheduling and has sympathy over 'ridiculous' week

The fourth-round showdown at Stair Park has been pushed back 24 hours to Sunday due to the original date of Saturday at 12.15pm clashing with the funeral of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

With the match selected for live coverage by BBC television and the state broadcaster expected to screen hours of funeral build-up before it begins at 3pm, there would have been an overlap and the decision was made to move the tie and several others over the weekend.

Hibs will now have a day less to prepare for their key Premiership encounter with Livingston on Wednesday, April 24, but the situation is more extreme for Stranraer, who played last night against Stirling, take on Stenhousemuir on Thursday, Hibs on Sunday and then Albion Rovers two days later.

"You just take it as it comes,” said Ross, who remained philosophical on the situation. “We always knew that there would be potential for that game to be played on the Sunday. When the draw is made, you know it's over that weekend.

"I don't think it's ideal when you have to change your plans, but, equally, we are playing against opponents who have got a ridiculous schedule at the moment, so I don't think we can complain too much. We just adjust accordingly and it should not have too much of a bearing on the game against Livingston on Wednesday evening.”

Ross revealed that Hibs had to alter their travel and accommodation plans, with the players expected to break the journey with a hotel on the west coast on the Saturday evening before completing their journey to Stranraer on the day of the game.

“We had to just push our travel and accommodation plans back by 24 hours,” added Ross. “We had everything in place for playing on the Saturday lunchtime, essentially we just had to push everything back. The fact it's exactly the same kick-off time, but a day later, meant it was straightforward enough to do that.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.If you haven't already, please consider supporting our sports coverage with a digital sports subscription.