Scottish Cup final: Wotherspoon Hibs squad hopes

Now, the midfielder is desperate to get the nod to ensure he is there at what he hopes will be a glorious end to a long road back to Hampden.

Wotherspoon suffered the crushing disappointment of being left out of Pat Fenlon’s match-day squad last May and was forced to watch the disastrous 90 minutes from the stand as ten-man Hibs ended up on the end of a 5-1 defeat.

But, just seven months on, the 23-year-old eased the pain of that loss slightly with the only goal in the fourth-round triumph over the Tynecastle outfit in December.

Now he hopes that his stunning headed winner in last Saturday’s SPL win over Dundee can convince his manager not to leave him out of his plans two years running.

Wotherspoon said of that Easter Road triumph over Hearts: “I think everyone wanted to put things right after last year’s cup final, and we managed that with a great victory over them. It was great for myself, personally, to get a goal as well.

“Of course it’s in the back of my mind that I need to impress the manager to get into the squad. I’ve been in and out the squad recently and I wanted to do as much as I can to get a place in it. So, scoring the goal (against Dundee) was great. It helped the lads to get a victory that was well deserved last weekend, so it was great all round.”

Wotherspoon accepts that his team-mates who were stripped for last year’s historic final “did not turn up”, and knows they cannot afford to repeat that if they are to have any chance of a victory tomorrow.

He added: “What do we have to get right to beat Celtic? Everything, really.

“We need to turn up on the day, we didn’t turn up at all against Hearts last year, and this time round we need to turn up, embrace it and enjoy it.”