Pete
20-04-2012, 03:52 AM
As far as I'm concerned the cup final starts on Sunday at three against Kilmarnock and carries on until the 19th of May.
It's been a woeful season in the league so far and especially at home where any team expects to be winning a high percentage of their Games.
The team has been piss-poor which has brought a poor reaction from the crowd, which ultimately results in a negative scoreline. The fans look on in disgust at what they are seeing and when the players look for support from the crowd when the chips are down they don't find it. It's been one big circle of negativity.
This hasn't been a normal season for many reasons (cough...Calderwood) but the one real twist has been the emergence of one of the biggest games in our history taking place at the end of the season. It's just our luck that this fixture produces itself when we are in a period of huge transition.
Ideally I would have liked this fixture to appear when we had another team wearing our shirt. The famous five, turnbulls team of the seventies, The 2000/1 team or even the recent golden generation would have probably won a Scottish cup final against hearts. However, we have this team wearing our colours in the biggest game we have ever faced and we're going to have to go into battle with them representing us. We can't change that.
The bottom line is that we have 30 days, which involve two home games and several away games to play our part...and the home games are the key.
Whenever they go away they are backed by the hard core who support them and there is less pressure but our players have felt the weight of expectation at home this season and have become nervous and afraid of failure.
I think we have to forget what has gone before and start preparing the team for the final. This means absolutely no negativity from the stands.
Absolutely none whatsoever...No booing, no signs of frustration whenever the ball is given away, No shouting at any of our players. It doesn'tmatter if we are getting beat 3-0 and half the team are having a nightmare...we have to let ourselves be heard in nothing but a positive tone.
The time for debating about your right to boo is over. This is it and these players need positivity no matter what.
We have to do all we can to link ourselves to the players and let them feed off our support. They might get beat off Killie or play badly but imagine the chat in the dressing room after they have been cheered off the park. They will initially think it's bizzare but it will sink in that we are in their corner no matter what and we genuinely are the twelfth man...not some critical entity to be feared.
If we give them nothing but totally insane positive support from now until the final it might make all the difference. Imagine we go two down to hearts in the first ten minutes. McPake, Big Gaz and wee Leigh will be looking at the East end for inspiration after they have regrouped...and they know they have GENUINE 100% backing no matter what. They wont forget the backing they received from the fans in the last few league gamesand they will know that a big hibs support is a positive force...and they will sweat blood to reward us!
I genuinely think Hearts have more to lose in this game than we do, but we have more to gain so it is definitely the most important game in the history of our club. We have to pee with the willy we have so we have to make these boys feel like they are special. We have to show them they are backed by the best and liveliest supporters in Scotland and we need to make every one of them feel ten feet tall from now until the final.
We can do this but it starts now. The "worst ever hibs team" can relegate fat jim and beat hearts in a scottish cup final. We just need to make the boys believe they can do it!
It's been a woeful season in the league so far and especially at home where any team expects to be winning a high percentage of their Games.
The team has been piss-poor which has brought a poor reaction from the crowd, which ultimately results in a negative scoreline. The fans look on in disgust at what they are seeing and when the players look for support from the crowd when the chips are down they don't find it. It's been one big circle of negativity.
This hasn't been a normal season for many reasons (cough...Calderwood) but the one real twist has been the emergence of one of the biggest games in our history taking place at the end of the season. It's just our luck that this fixture produces itself when we are in a period of huge transition.
Ideally I would have liked this fixture to appear when we had another team wearing our shirt. The famous five, turnbulls team of the seventies, The 2000/1 team or even the recent golden generation would have probably won a Scottish cup final against hearts. However, we have this team wearing our colours in the biggest game we have ever faced and we're going to have to go into battle with them representing us. We can't change that.
The bottom line is that we have 30 days, which involve two home games and several away games to play our part...and the home games are the key.
Whenever they go away they are backed by the hard core who support them and there is less pressure but our players have felt the weight of expectation at home this season and have become nervous and afraid of failure.
I think we have to forget what has gone before and start preparing the team for the final. This means absolutely no negativity from the stands.
Absolutely none whatsoever...No booing, no signs of frustration whenever the ball is given away, No shouting at any of our players. It doesn'tmatter if we are getting beat 3-0 and half the team are having a nightmare...we have to let ourselves be heard in nothing but a positive tone.
The time for debating about your right to boo is over. This is it and these players need positivity no matter what.
We have to do all we can to link ourselves to the players and let them feed off our support. They might get beat off Killie or play badly but imagine the chat in the dressing room after they have been cheered off the park. They will initially think it's bizzare but it will sink in that we are in their corner no matter what and we genuinely are the twelfth man...not some critical entity to be feared.
If we give them nothing but totally insane positive support from now until the final it might make all the difference. Imagine we go two down to hearts in the first ten minutes. McPake, Big Gaz and wee Leigh will be looking at the East end for inspiration after they have regrouped...and they know they have GENUINE 100% backing no matter what. They wont forget the backing they received from the fans in the last few league gamesand they will know that a big hibs support is a positive force...and they will sweat blood to reward us!
I genuinely think Hearts have more to lose in this game than we do, but we have more to gain so it is definitely the most important game in the history of our club. We have to pee with the willy we have so we have to make these boys feel like they are special. We have to show them they are backed by the best and liveliest supporters in Scotland and we need to make every one of them feel ten feet tall from now until the final.
We can do this but it starts now. The "worst ever hibs team" can relegate fat jim and beat hearts in a scottish cup final. We just need to make the boys believe they can do it!