Two-Tone Fans?
(Stuart Crowther)

DO HIBERNIAN FC HAVE TWO SETS OF FANS? On the face of it a strange question to ask, but anyone who attends regularly must surely wonder at the difference in atmosphere at times between the Hibs support who travel and those who turn out at Easter Road.

The contrast was never more obvious that in the last week.  On Sunday, Hibs entertained Motherwell at Easter Road and to be honest, the comments from some players after the game were milder than they might have been.  Gary Smith indicated that they needed the fans to get behind the team to bring about a change in play, rather than them waiting for the team to change play before extracting some vocal support.  Gary was spot on in that - in fact I'd go much further.  Hibs fans at Easter Road must re-learn what 'support' is - it is getting behind the team, in the only way possible - vocally - from the off, even if things are not going well, in fact in particular when things are not going well!

"Hibs fans at Easter Road must re-learn what 'support' is"

That is one set of fans, the others are quite a different breed altogether.  I had the pleasure, albeit forced upon me by the refusal of Kilmarnock F.C. to realise that with a monthly readership of around 30,000 Hibs.net has every right to claim press accreditation, to be right there in the middle of this second fan grouping at Kilmarnock for the Scottish Cup Quarter Final.  To say their support was magnificent, as Alex McLeish indeed did say, is just as much an understatement of the facts as was Gary Smith's comments of just six days earlier.

The Hibs support over in Ayrshire was simply buzzing, long before the teams came out they were fired up.  They knew the difficulties that faced Hibs, and they knew just how important it was to let the players know they were not fighting this cause on their own, there was not far short of 4,000 voices roaring encouragement at every touch of the ball.  In the eyes of the vast majority in that band of fans, no Hibs player was capable of making an error; in their eyes, every Hibs player was super-human and no matter what would carry the day.  You know, I think it worked!

The Away Brigade get ready to rumble! (Hibs.net)

Not since that wonderful evening in Anderlecht have I known the Hibs support to get it together in such a way, and on such days you just know that the script is going to turn up something special.  OK, the game itself was nothing special!  But the circumstances for a damn good drama were all in place; Hibs had already lost the services of Mathias Jack before a ball was kicked, and within 30 minutes had lost skipper Franck Sauzee and highly influential Ulrik Laursen.  This would silence most fans, but not this lot.

Indeed, within ten minutes (after they had recovered from the shock of seeing him in that position), the Hibs support even had Mixu Paatelainen believing he was the best left-back at the Easter Road club in the last 30 years, I mean why else would big Mixu keep popping up at the back post to head clear, before tearing up the left wing like a teenager?

The final tribute though to those fans came from the hero of the day himself, Tam McManus, when he said he had not even realised his header had hit the net until, from the distance of the other end of Rugby Park, he heard the roar of the Hibs fans.  The stand rocked to its very foundations, and kept rocking until the last man in green took the last step back into the streets of Kilmarnock.  If only we could bottle some of that spirit and feed it to the Easter Road 'home' divisions, such would surely be the key to a true fortress in Leith.