Here we go again!
It's Scottish Cup time as Williamson welcomes
back two strikers missing from last weekend....
WELL IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN
FOLKS! No not the pantomime season but Scottish Cup time again.
Saturday sees the 3rd round of this competition take place
and sees the Hibees take on Rangers. A place in the next round is at
stake for the winner of this tie. Hibs have already beaten one half of
the Old Firm in cup competition; can they do the same again on Saturday?
Rangers are not having what they
would call the best of seasons this year. They are already eleven
points behind Celtic in the championship race and are out of Europe
before Christmas once again after failing to even qualify for the UEFA
Cup after losing out in the Champions League. This is indeed for me a
very different Rangers side compared to the one that won the treble last
year not only in personnel but also in attitude at times. They have
lost some of the guys who were key players for them such as Barry
Ferguson, Lorenzo Amoruso and Arthur Numan. They have brought in some
new players to try and replace those who they have lost. But in my
opinion these guys just aren’t doing it for Rangers yet. Whether they
will in the future remains to be seen. A prime example of the
frustration in the Rangers camp was seen during the Old Firm match last
Saturday when Stefan Klos and Fernando Ricksen almost squared up to each
other after an error in defence. Does that reek of a happy atmosphere?
McManus celebrates against Rangers last season (sns)
Ahead of Saturday’s game as written
by Richard yesterday Rangers are having a spate of injury problems and
suspensions. Craig Moore who is seen as a strong part of their defence
is suspended for this tie after being booked in last year’s semi final.
While adding to their long term injuries such as Ronald de Boer Rangers
will also be without new signing Gavin Rae, Stephen Hughes and Stephen
Thompson while Christian Nerlinger is rated doubtful. The piece of good
news is the return of Zurab
Khizanishvili
to the Rangers
line up.
Hibs on the other hand
have no extra injury worries to add to the long-term casualties of
Roland Edge, Yannick Zambernardi and Ian Murray. Derek Riordan is able
to return to the starting line up should Bobby choose to play him after
he has served his League suspension against Partick last week while Tam
McManus also returns to the starting line up after a bout of flu. Bobby
Williamson said in yesterdays Edinburgh Evening News:
"I’ll be looking at things over the
next couple of days. We had a winning team last weekend but I’ll have no
hesitation in making changes, I’ll be picking the team I feel can win
the game.
Obviously having Derek and Tam, both attack-minded players, available
for selection again is good news, as a manager you want to have as many
options as possible."
With tickets reportedly
selling well it looks like it could be a high capacity Easter Road that
watches Hibs take on Rangers on Saturday, hopefully ready to cheer their
side to victory. This was a fact echoed by Williamson who hopes the
support will be the same as that who watched against Celtic in the CIS
Cup: "I definitely felt the crowd was a factor against Celtic. Even when
we went a goal behind they raised it that wee bit more and encouraged us
all the way.
"It would be great if we
could get the same sort of support as we did in that match. The Scottish
Cup seems to bring out more fans for some reason and hopefully the
supporters who do come along will get right behind us."
I hold with the manager’s comments and hope that there is a big crowd to
watch Hibs hopefully take one step on the road to Hampden. Maybe this
could be the Hibees year?
