Jack Ross hails 'brilliant' Ryan Porteous as Hibs defender makes Hampden admission

Jack Ross insisted there was nothing surprising about the performance of Ryan Porteous in Hibernian’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final victory over Rangers at Hampden on Sunday.

The spotlight had been turned on the young centre-back following his red card in the last meeting between the two teams and his every touch was booed by the Gers supporters but the defender assisted Martin Boyle’s opener and played his part in a strong defensive performance in the second half, making up for his error in the lead-up to Scott Arfield’s strike shortly before half-time.

“There was a lot of focus pre-match because of what had gone on in a couple of games,” Ross said afterwards.

“Overall, his disciplinary record is pretty good. And I think he’s a really good player, who’s still only 22.

Jack Ross embraces Ryan Porteous at full time

“He’s a Hibs fan and that can be quite hard emotionally, sometimes. You talk about these games being intense and the atmosphere was incredible in the opening part of that game.

“You have to keep your head as clear as you can. He has to clear his head after the goal we concede as well.

“[His performance] doesn’t surprise me. I think he’s a brilliant big centre-half who really doesn’t quite get the credit he deserves sometimes in this country.”

Porteous made the most of the full-time celebrations, channelling Steven Gerrard in his post-match interview before admitting that the Easter Road players went into the match with a view to making amends.

“We let the fans down last year in the Scottish Cup final and in a semi-final as well,” he admitted. "We’ve let the manager down over the last month too.

“I feel it’s about rectifying that. On our day we feel as if we are good enough to beat anybody. We take that into the final and we want to bring the cup home.”

Porteous also touched on the significance of Hibs putting in another strong showing against the Scottish Premiership champions but managing to get the result.

“We’ve played Rangers a few times in the last couple of years and we feel like we’ve let ourselves down,” he continued.

“I’ve got myself sent off, we’ve conceded slack goals, and maybe haven’t got a break. But we showed our quality today.”

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