Scott Brown sends ultimate compliment to Hibs as club hero makes bold prediction over Premiership table

Ayr United manager Scott Brown has revealed a bold prediction for Hibs this season as he plots the downfall of his old club.

There were some rye smiles on display when David Gray’s side were handed an away tie against the Championship title contenders when the Scottish Cup fifth round draw was made earlier this week. The visit to Somerset Park will provide Hibs with a stern test as they face an Ayr side that have lost just once in 16 home games on home soil this season.

However, the recent upturn in performances and results has boosted Hibs confidence and they head into this weekend’s league trip to Ross County knowing a win could lift them to within three points of the top four if results elsewhere go their way. Ayr boss Brown, who made over 100 appearances for Hibs before going on to enjoyed a trophy-laden 14-year spell at Celtic, has been impressed with his old club’s recent form and believes it can take them a long way before the end of the season.

When asked if he watched the draw take place, he told the club’s official X (formerly Twitter) account: “Yeah, I’d like to say thanks to Alan Hutton for that one. One of my old clubs but it’s going to be great for the club, great for the fan base, hopefully a full house as well would be fantastic for the club. At the same time, it’s a great opportunity to see how far we’ve come since coming in the door a year ago. We went to Rangers that time in the cup as soon as we came in here and it was a hard game. We know what we expected, I thought we played really well on the day but we got beat two-nil.

“Hibs coming here, it’s a hard place to come, the pitch is a little bit tighter, we need to make sure we are switched on because they’re a top quality team and a fantastic squad as well. They’ve got a great manager and they seem to have turned the corner, playing some good football and winning a lot of games. I can see them probably finishing in third spot in the league at this moment in time. They’ve got the momentum in that league. You want to play against top quality teams, you want to see how far we are and it’s a great opportunity for our lads.”

The Championship promotion chasers are the fifth best supported club in the second tier across the current season with an average home attendance of just under 2,700. However, there is an expectation the fifth round tie with Hibs will be played out in front of a capacity crowd of over 6,500 - and Brown wants his players to take belief from their supporters as they look to cause a major upset.

He said: “It’s great for us because we want to see this place filled all of the time. The fans have been brilliant since we first stepped in the door so hopefully they’ll stick by us, come in their thousands and support us as well because they’ll help us hugely in that game.

“We need to start the game really well, we also need to be calm and collected on the ball and you have to go into it believing you can cause that upset because that’s one thing we don’t want, we don’t want to go in there thinking we are already beat going into a game like that. I think, no matter who comes us, whether it’s Celtic, whether it’s Rangers, whether it’s Hibs, we have always got a chance.”