Alan Stubbs hails ‘best 4 days’ in charge of Hibs

Hibernian's David Gray opens the scoring at Easter Road. Picture: SNS

Following Sunday’s 2-1 win over Rangers, Hibs sealed a  second successive home victory in front of nearly 12,000 fans. They have now gone 12 games unbeaten in all competitions.

“In terms of results it’s probably the best four days I’ve had as manager here but I’ve got to say that, even without results, I’ve had some good days here,” said Stubbs, who indicated no preference for semi-final opponent.

“I don’t mind who we get in the semi-final, I’m just glad that we’re in there,” he said. “I was delighted that we had this game tonight after Sunday because I didn’t want the players to dwell on that. It gave us the chance to quickly move on and turn our attention to this. We’ve had to regroup because we had a  couple of niggles from Sunday. But the fact we have a strong squad has allowed me to bring players in and it didn’t affect the result whatsoever.”

Hibs are now unbeaten since losing to Rangers in August. They added a team sitting bottom of the Premiership to one sitting top to their list of League Cup scalps.

After beating Aberdeen 2-0 in the last round, they made swift work of United. Stubbs’ side have not yet conceded a goal in the competition.

Strikes from David Gray and Jason Cummings put Hibs 2-0 up before Lewis Stevenson added a third with almost the last kick of the game.

Cummings’ goal, from the  penalty spot, was his sixth in successive games.

“When you have won so many games on the bounce if you haven’t got a swagger I don’t think you ever will,” said Stubbs.

United have the opposite problem under new manager Mixu Paatelainen. The Finn conceded that Aberdeen, their opponents in the league this Saturday and themselves suffering after a series of poor results, will be “sharpening their knives” at  the prospect of hosting the beleaguered visitors.

“We were off it, we were nowhere near good enough,” said Paatelainen. “Hibs were up for it, their movement was better than ours but we were not up for it tonight. That showed why we are exactly where we are in the league table.

“Similar things are happening already in my short spell here, it takes time to sort things out,” he added. “It is everyone’s responsibility to sort it out, myself, the coaching staff and the players. I’m sure we will be better in  the future – but it’s going to be a long winter.”