Hibs’ Semi-final win leaves on-loan Tom soaring

Soares – who is on loan at Easter Road from Stoke – only joined the club in January, along with six others.

And with so many new faces arriving at the club at the same time, the Hibs players have had their work cut out to gel together. However, having beaten Inverness, drawn with Motherwell and booked their place in the Scottish Cup final in the space of the last couple of weeks, it seems that the Easter Road squad have begun to build up a real understanding together.

Soares certainly believes so and says that Pat Fenlon’s side can go from strength-to-strength in the remaining weeks of the season.

With five league games left to secure their SPL status for next season and now a cup final to prepare for, Soares is hoping that things have finally started to click.

He said: “It has been quite difficult because we’ve had to gel together pretty quickly, there hasn’t been a lot of time for us to do that. But I think that we are getting there now.

“The performances have got better and we are looking stronger as a team every week. We might not have had much time but we are certainly going in the right direction.

“We’ve just got to keep digging in and, hopefully, we can pull away from the bottom of the table and go on to win the final at the end of the season.

“It would be brilliant, not only for the boys who have just come to the club on loan, but also for the guys who have been here for a long time.”

Goals at the beginning and end of the 90 minutes against Aberdeen at Hampden were enough to send Hibs through to a stunning cup final clash with city rivals Hearts next month.

Garry O’Connor and Leigh Griffiths were the difference between the two sides, although Rory Fallon hit a consolation for the Dons on the hour mark.

And Soares was delighted to see Griffiths chip in with another vital goal, adding: “We are all delighted, it is just a great feeling.

“They scored a fantastic goal and put us on the back foot for a while but we dug in and Leigh scored another vital goal for us.

“I think that after they scored we were probably the better team, we defended pretty well and I thought that we always looked a threat going forward. Leigh is just one of those players – you know that he is always capable of doing something brilliant for you and thankfully that was the case at the weekend.”

Soares has been involved in the Championship play-offs in England but admitted that the trip to Hampden was one of the biggest occasions that he has played in so far in his career.

He started against the Dons and is hoping that he can do enough in the remaining five matches of the league season to convince Pat Fenlon that he should be given the nod as well for the cup final against Hearts. He continued: “Playing at Hampden was a great experience, you always want to be involved in games like that. The pitch was in great condition and there was a great atmosphere as well and the boys are just glad that they will be coming back here again in a few weeks.

“Back down South, I was involved with Crystal Palace in the play-offs and the crowds at that were pretty big.

“Last season, Stoke played Manchester City but I was left out of the squad for that one and I have to admit, I was pretty disappointed with that.

“So it was brilliant to have started the game against Aberdeen and, hopefully, I will be playing again in the final.

“There are six games left if you include the cup final and the boys will all be desperate to be involved. We have all got to just take every game as it comes, keep working hard and training hard and hope that the manager picks you in his side.”