Yogi won't take Hibs' visit of Meadow in Cup lightly

Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009 08:50

HIBS boss John Hughes today insisted that his side will treat Junior outfit Irvine Meadow with the same respect they would an SPL side.

The Easter Road side were yesterday drawn against the Ayrshire side in the Scottish Cup and, with three top-flight sides guaranteed to exit the competition in the third round next month, Hughes conceded that it's even more important that his team make the most of the opportunity that has been handed to them.

While Rangers were drawn against Hamilton, Falkirk against Kilmarnock and Hearts face a tricky trip to Aberdeen, Hibs were handed a home tie with the West Premier champions in yesterday's televised draw at Hampden after Meadow's shock win over Arbroath last weekend.

It's a dream tie for the juniors, managed by Chris Strain, but Yogi is determined that his players won't become the next big scalp for the Ayrshire men.

He said: "There's no doubt it is a really big banana skin for us but three SPL sides will go out in this round and we want to make sure that we go about our business properly, we don't want to be making the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The one thing that we will make sure of is that we will be thorough because we can't afford to be anything else.

"We're looking forward to the game and obviously the main thing for us is to keep a clean sheet. If we can do that then I am confident that the boys can get a goal or two to take us through to the next round.

"They will be organised so we need to make sure that we play our own game because we know that if we sit back and put nothing into the game, we will get nothing out of it. It's as simple as that. It's their cup final in a sense, they'll be right up for the game."

Having played junior football himself at the start of his career with Newtongrange Star, Hughes is well aware of the ability of the players.

He expects the juniors to bring a noisy and sizeable support with them and continued: "The best thing to have come out of the draw for us is the fact that we have got a home tie.

"We are also playing a juniors side and, for me, that is the romance of the Scottish Cup, it's what this competition is all about.

Juniors fans are very passionate about the game and I am sure they will turn out in their numbers to support their side. I played for Newtongrange for three or four years when I was 19 or 20 and I loved it. The juniors was my apprenticeship and I loved everything about it, that's where I learned to head the ball, I played alongside a guy called Kevin McCall and his timing in the air was just impeccable.

"They've got a lot of players who have been involved in the game at a decent level, boys like Brian McGinty, Chris McGowan and Mark Crilly, and that's just a few of them. They might feel that they have a point to prove to everyone."