Michael Weir: Cup's exciting but promotion main target

Saturday's game was definitely an opportunity missed for Hibs. After Rangers slipping up, I'm really disappointed that we weren't able to capitalise and put some pressure on them.

Hibs couldn't find a way past Livingston. Pic: SNS

I expected us to respond positively to the Rangers result and go out fired up against Livingston, but it just didn’t happen. In the end, we were just happy to get a point because they had a couple of chances to win it.

I thought we over-played. We passed the ball a lot and played outside the box, but we didn’t get enough balls into the box to test them. We were a bit shot-shy, to be 
honest.

The only bonus is that, at the start of the weekend, nobody really expected Rangers to drop points, so we’ve not lost any ground. There will be other weekends when we get the chance to make up ground on them – we just have to make sure we take advantage next time because we can’t allow too many of these opportunities to pass us by.

I hope the fact we’re still in both cup competitions doesn’t start detracting from our league form. Getting promoted has to remain our main target so it’s imperative that we stay focused on our league matches and don’t get sidetracked by the cups.

Having said that, it’s hard not to get excited about tomorrow’s Scottish Cup replay against Hearts. We did well against them at Tynecastle but this will be a different ball game. There’s a bit extra pressure on Hibs this time because we’re the home team and a lot of people are expecting us to win as a result of how the first game went.

Hearts will be happy with that scenario though – they have a knack of being at their most dangerous when people don’t fancy them. I fully expect them to come to Easter Road with a point to prove after the way the first game finished, and we need to be wary of that. We’re certainly good enough to win it, but we’ll need to at least match the level of performance we put in eight days ago. If we perform like we did on Saturday, though, it will be a difficult night for us.

It’ll be a great spectacle. The fact it’s not on television should ensure a full house. It’s the perfect opportunity for us to get back on track after Saturday’s disappointment.