John McGinn still ranks Hibs' Scottish Cup win as career highlight despite success with Aston Villa and Scotland

Hibs' John McGinn celebrates with the William Hill Scottish Cup in 2016. Pic: Alan Harvey, SNS Group

John McGinn still ranks his Scottish Cup triumph with Hibs as the pinnacle of his career despite his success in England and on the international scene.

The midfielder became a legend at Easter Road for being part of the team that ended the club's 114-year wait for the Scottish Cup with victory over Rangers in the 2016 final.

He made over 100 appearances before earning a big-money move to Aston Villa, clinching promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs, while his Scotland career has also taken off, with seven goals in the Euro 2020 qualifying campaign, including a hat-trick against San Marino in October.

But the 25-year-old still regards Hibs' historic day at Hampden four years ago as his personal highlight.

Speaking to PLZ Soccer, McGinn said: "I would still say it's up there with my biggest career achievement.

"No-one in England understands it when I talk about it, just the desperation of the Hibs supporters to get that trophy, and to be involved in the team that provided it for them, was something I'll never forget.

"The party that night, and the party the next day in Edinburgh was just surreal. I don't think in my career I'll ever experience anything like that again.

"It was just mad and I obviously still keep an eye on Hibs' results, especially with Paul being there.

"It was just a great time to be a player there and hopefully they can keep on progressing and it's not 114 years before the next trophy."

McGinn recalled the determination among the Hibs players to succeed that day, having lost the League Cup final to Ross County earlier that season, as well as crashing out of the promotion play-offs to Falkirk.

"A big factor in us winning that day was the League Cup defeat," he said. "Full credit to Ross County for winning that day, but we felt as if we should've gone on and won that.

"Then losing to Falkirk in the play-offs was really tough to take and we didn't want that feeling again.

"I think everyone touches on how confident we were going into the game because everyone had been fed-up of coming runners-up.

"It was the team that was nearly winning a treble, nearly winning a double, but thankfully we proved a lot of doubters wrong that day which made it even sweeter."