Scottish Cup: James McPake hails fans’ faith

James McPake tussles for the ball with Falkirks Lyle Taylor during Hibs triumphant William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park last month. Picture: Lisa McPhillips

Having suffered arguably the worst result in Hibs’ history at Hampden last May, McPake says it would have been no more than the team deserved to face empty stands this season.

But the Hibs’ fans have kept the faith in the wake of that 5-1 Scottish Cup final loss to Hearts and return to Hampden this Sunday with renewed hope of the club lifting the old trophy for the first time since 1902.

It was that quarter-final win over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on 3 March which underlined to McPake just how much the competition means to the fans.

“I’ve never played in front of a support that does that to you,” said the Hibs captain. “The fans could, and probably should, have deserted us because of that showing in the final last year. But football fans are not about that. If they were, then we’d have been playing in front of an empty stadium after last year.

“Thankfully, the fans have seen the improvements and hopefully they’ll continue to see them. Even if we had won the cup last year, there would still be an obsession with this trophy at the club. Even though we haven’t won it for so long, I think the fans love the cup runs.

“We made amends a little, if you can say that, by putting Hearts out of the tournament this year which was a big thing for us. It was a draw that we were happy with.

“It was a chance for us to go and have a go at them straight away in the cup as well. I don’t know if going out and winning it solves everything, because that day last May will always be there.

“But I don’t feel any baggage going into this game after last season. Yes, we want to win this cup but we want to win it for the fans, not just for last year, but for the 111 years it has been without the cup. It has been far too long. There is more to the football club than last season.

“There is a bigger picture and the bigger picture is that it has been far too long since we’ve lifted the major cup in this country, especially as we such a big football club in this country.” McPake says the crucial difference this year is a greater resilience, the kind they displayed at 3-0 down to Falkirk in the semi-final to win 4-3.

He said: “Falkirk absolutely blitzed us, there is no denying it. We certainly never got started but I don’t even know if we even got off the bus by half-time. We were shocked to say the least and Falkirk were deservedly three goals ahead. We got ourselves in and sorted and thankfully we got ourselves back here.

“I actually wish we had a video recording of our dressing room at half-time against Falkirk. The manager probably didn’t have to speak for the best part of eight to ten minutes.

“It was just players having a go at each other, not grabbing each other by the throat or threatening to hit each other, but just saying ‘this is what you’re not doing’. Big players at the club, senior players taking it off the younger boys as well and taking it on the chin. That’s why the manager could sit and not say much, it was refreshing for him.

“He maybe sensed it at the time, that we knew it wasn’t good enough and we were going to go out and redeem ourselves any way we could.

“It was one thing the manager said when I sat down with him two or three days after last season’s cup final. He said there were a few changes he wanted to make and the club wasn’t doing what it should be doing.

“He’s making those changes, there’s a different mentality, a more hard-working mentality, there’s a bit of steel about us, you saw it in the semi-final. If we had been 3-0 down last season I guarantee you we would have been beaten five or six. We’ve managed to turn that around this season, that’s the difference.

“A lot of credit has to go to the manager as well. Last season he came in and his job was to keep us in the SPL. He did that.

“It took us to the second-last game but if you’re asked to do a job then you do it. He got us to the cup final which was an added bonus which finished terribly, but that wasn’t his fault as we never played on the day.

“There were 11 of us out on the pitch who could have affected that day, not him. A lot of it goes to him and the people he has brought in, the characters he’s brought in. Ben Williams commands respect every time he speaks in the dressing room. Leaders. Kevin Thomson coming back, another leader. Maybe before that was lacking. That’s what we’re hoping we can use to our advantage this time.”

McPake knows Hibs will never completely forget last year’s final, even if they win on Sunday. But he will be content to have two permanent reminders of football’s highs and lows.

“I kept my runners-up medal last year, although I haven’t actually seen it or the strip I wore since the day after the final,” he said. “I went on holiday soon afterwards, my house was in England at the time and all my stuff was left at my mum’s house. I think the boots, strip and medal are all there. I’ll maybe look it out when I’ve got a winners’ medal as well. Hopefully I can sit them side by side on Sunday.”