Pat FENLON has urged his players to ignore the fact two extra officials will be watching their every move at Hampden tomorrow, telling them: “Play your own game.”

As Easter Road men bid for Scottish Cup glory against Celtic tomorrow, Scott Thomson looks back at the club’s 12 previous final appearances

Pat Fenlon today explained devastated Hibs skipper James McPake knew himself he had lost his battle against injury and the chance to lead the Easter Road side out at Hampden for the second year in succession.

JOE Harper would love to see Leigh Griffiths match his Hampden heroics for Hibs – but finish on the winning side.

Just a year after finishing a loan stint with Third Division Berwick Rangers, rookie defender Jordon Forster is primed to carry Hibs’ hopes on his young shoulders in tomorrow’s Scottish Cup final.

Hibs boss Pat Fenlon has revealed he has just one wish for tomorrow’s Scottish Cup final – that his Easter Road side simply do themselves justice.

Twelve months on and the hurt is still raw, barely a day having passed without Lewis Stevenson and his team-mates being reminded of the humiliation inflicted on them by arch-rivals Hearts.

THE match laboured under an air of gloom, an all-green clash marred by tragedy a week earlier and a game which one witness would go on to describe as “the poorest final on record, for the most part dull and dreary”.

Leigh GRIFFITHS has a 
trophy cabinet groaning with the multitude of awards he has gathered over the past few weeks, symbols of an outstanding season by a player who has scored 28 goals for Hibs.

One Cup final is as good as it gets for most players so making it back-to-back visits to Hampden is certainly a remarkable achievement for Pat Fenlon’s Hibs, a feat the Easter Road outfit last managed 90 years ago.

Ben Williams today admitted 
there will be no room for passengers as Hibs team coach rolls into Hampden on Sunday, the Easter Road goalkeeper conceding each and every one of Pat Fenlon’s players will have to be at the top of their game if they are to wrest the Scottish Cup from the clutches of Celtic.

Ben Williams is desperate to see skipper James McPake win his fitness battle and lead Hibs out at Hampden on Sunday, but today the goalkeeper admitted he’d have no fears if boss Pat Fenlon is forced to pitch teenage defender Jordon Forster into the biggest game of his career.

Hibs will be looking to make amends for the defeat in last season’s final at the hands of city rivals Hearts, while Celtic are keen to complete the league and cup double after a gruelling season that saw them make the last 16 of the Champions League.

It IS the first rule of any dressing-room. Whatever goes on within those four walls remains there. But today Hibs skipper James McPake admitted he wished there had been a “fly-on-the-wall” camera to capture what happened in that inner sanctum at Hampden during those 15 half-time minutes against Falkirk in the 
Scottish Cup semi-final.

James McPake today claimed Scottish Cup rivals Celtic will be as fearful of Hibs hotshot Leigh Griffiths as the Easter Road outfit are of Hoops hitmen Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes.

James McPAKE’S hopes of leading Hibs into their second successive Scottish Cup final are fading, Easter Road boss Pat Fenlon revealed today.

At 34 years of age Alan 
Maybury may be the elder statesman at Easter Road, but today the veteran defender admitted he’s as excited as any of his teenage team-mates as he looks forward to Sunday’s Scottish Cup final against Celtic.

Paul HANLON today revealed he and his Easter Road team-mates have consigned last season’s Scottish Cup debacle to history, claiming their full focus is on winning Sunday’s final against Celtic.

Hampden has been heaven and hell for Scott Robertson, the ecstasy of winning the 
Scottish Cup soured by the ignominy of being “hooked” barely half-an-hour into this season’s semi-final as First 
Division Falkirk threatened to end Hibs’ dream of glory for yet another year.

TOM TAIWO reckons lifting the Scottish Cup this weekend would be the perfect way to 
answer his critics.