Out and proud
Richard talks radio and other Hibernian matters

Having been “outed” on Tuesday night during my radio show, I was tempted to go into hiding instead of writing this column, partly as a result of being taken by surprise (oo-er missus) because apart from anything else, I was never actually in the bloody closet to start with! One remark about a song entitled “Does your mother know you’re out” and look what happens. On the subject of Tuesday, I’m glad the male fraternity looking on the Webcam liked the look of my co-presenter Clare, or my “trophy assistant” as I believe one poster referred to her. Clare is a media student at Queen Margaret University College, who happens to go to my Salsa class. You must all have done something right as she is now a convert to the Hibs cause and will be back in the Shack at a future date. So there you go, I stood up and was counted. So far I’ve converted three people to the Hibernian cause since the call was sounded. How about the rest of you?

The other two people were my friend from work, Shams Abu-Tayeh and her friend Gus. Both had no particular allegiances to any football team before the Dundee United game and really just turned up for a look. Shams used to live in Chicago and had been to American Football and Baseball games and wanted to see how “soccer” compared. The catering in the aforementioned US establishments was a sight better, with Shams being told that the vegetarian option of the day in the East Stand was “Crisps”. As for the toilets, let’s not go there. Shams wished she hadn’t. The atmosphere however, made it something special, as did Scott Brown’s goal, and both started the day as neutrals and finished up referring to Hibernian as “We” by the end of the game, so that was a good days work.

Dunfermline game switch pre-Christmas? (sns)

The other thing I’m doing is making up future play lists, so if you have particular favourite Soul and Reggae tunes, send me a PM with them and I will write them into my play lists. Two or three of my regulars have done that already and their choices will heavily influence the next few weeks worth of music. Hibernian marketing department take note: I am asking my audience what they want of me and responding accordingly, a process known as market research, or the subtle art of finding out what your customers want and then providing it. That is the only sound way to produce any marketing plan. The listening forums have been a good start, producing some pretty worthwhile ideas. The £30 cup top-up package being a very good example, and I am kicking myself for not buying into it as it would have saved me a good few quid already. I can understand the cynicism in a number of quarters about the plan, but the club appears to be genuinely interested in deepening its supporters involvement with it, and that should only receive encouragement from the like of me.

There is of course no club football on Saturday with the Euro 2004 play-off games taking place next week. Of particular interest to Hibs fans will be the Scotland Under-21 team, with the likes of Murray, McManus and O’Connor all likely to feature, especially with second leg on Tuesday taking place at Easter Road. Scotland under-21 boss Rainer Bonhof faces a sweat over Hibs striker Garry O’Connor ahead of the play-off first leg clash in Croatia on Sunday though, O’Connor missing training due to a throat infection.

With regard to the second leg, supporters have been urged to buy their tickets early in order to avoid the pandemonium seen ahead of the last time Easter Road played host to an International European Championship match against Croatia at Easter Road. On that occasion Scotland’s 2-0 win over Iceland just three days beforehand prompted huge demand with more than 6000 tickets being sold on the day to boost the crowd to more than 16,200. Although there will be a cash gate at the ground on the night, Hibs believe a good result for Rainer Bonhof’s squad in the first leg on Sunday will generate huge interest in the match.

Elsewhere, it’s bad news for those of you who don’t like Christmas shopping with the CIS Cup game on December 18^th (my 30^th Birthday) forcing the SPL home game against Dunfermline on Saturday 20th December to be put back 24 hours to Sunday 21^st. Kick off is 3 O’Clock (although this is yet to be confirmed by the club we believe it is 95% certain).

Nick Colgan could be on his way to the Premiership as Wolves have been given dispensation from the Premiership to sign a keeper after their regular keeper suffered a stress fracture of the foot. Colgan is currently on loan at Stockport County, but has lost his place to a teenage star recently, something a number of the current Hibs squad can relate to.