Lewis Stevenson says Hibs not haunted by Ayr

LEWIS Stevenson claims that Scottish Cup defeat to Ayr United 14 months ago will have no bearing on Hibs’ chances as the Easter Road side prepare to return to Somerset Park for this weekend’s quarter-final tie.

Midfielder Stevenson will, on Saturday, be part of a Hibs side virtually unrecognisable from that of January 2011, with few current players’ view of the old Ayrshire ground tainted by last year’s humbling at the hands of a then Second Division team.

“It’s a totally different team to the one which went to Ayr last year, there will be very few on the coach who were involved so the vast majority won’t have any thoughts, or probably even be aware, of what happened,” said Stevenson, 24.

“I feel we’ve got the right mix in the squad now and we’re starting to hit a bit of form.”

This season, Ayr, now of the First Division, have beaten SPL teams Inverness Caley Thistle and Hearts at home in cup competition, while also edging top-tier club St Mirren en route to the League Cup semi-final.

Stevenson is wary of Saturday’s opponents but said: “We have a tough 90 minutes, Ayr have nothing to lose but hopefully if we play the way we know we can than we’ll be all right.”