The secret to Hibs winning at Rangers as duo battle surgery and Jake Doyle-Hayes update

David Gray scored his first goal for Hibs at Ibrox and won there on more than one occasion as a player. On Sunday he makes his managerial bow at the home of Rangers hoping for similar fortunes.

Now head coach, Gray netted during a 3-1 win on September 29, 2014 as a right-back and captain to silence Govan. Exactly ten years to the day, he will aim to mastermind a repeat victory for the capital club, who are on a ten-game winless run against Rangers.

It was Alan Stubbs and Neil Lennon who were at the helm of victorious Hibs teams at Ibrox when Gray was a player. “Now you're testing me!” Gray smiled when asked to recall what their final words were to the team before such matches. “That was ten years ago. I think the biggest message to go into any game is you need to give the players enough belief to know they can go and do it. Rangers will be favourites going into the game. They know how tough a test it can be.

David Gray heads home during a victory over Rangers in 2014. | SNS Group

“But you need to give the players belief. They need to believe as a group that you can go there and win. That you can go there and get a positive result because if you don't believe right from the start then you're already 1-0 down before the game starts.

“So I think that's the biggest thing that I'll always remember with a lot of the managers I've worked for. Especially when you might be underdogs is that you actually do genuinely believe you can get something from it and you trust in the process, you trust in your game plan and you give absolutely everything you can towards it.”

Gray’s best moment against Rangers also came in Glasgow, but at Hampden when scoring the winner in the Scottish Cup final in 2016. But his first goal in green and white and winning at Ibrox are still locked away in the memory bank.

“It's memories that will live with me forever,” said Gray. “It was my first competitive goal and even just going there and playing in the games. These are the games you want to play in, I've mentioned it several times now playing for a club like Hibs. In this league you get opportunities to play in big stadiums and big atmospheres. And the fans are a big part of that. They really drive it.

Gray speaks to the press ahead of Sunday's match against Rangers. | SNS Group

“The intensity at Ibrox is something that some of the players going there for the first time need to be ready for because it's similar when you go to Celtic Park and Tynecastle and these games when there is a rivalry and expectation from a Hibs supporter. You need to go there and put on a performance. But you need to deal with 50,000 Rangers supporters as well.

“So you need to be able to deal with that. But it's a great occasion If you can really stand up to it and put a good account of yourself to it.”

Hibs may have to do without two senior players against Rangers after captain Joe Newell and winger Martin Boyle had operations earlier this month to cure hernia and hand issues respectively. New striker Dwight Gayle will be in the squad, but midfielder Jake Doyle-Hayes continues to be absent.

“He's still as he was,” Gray said on the Irishman. “He played a bounce game last week and came through that. He's continuing to work hard to try and get himself back to the level. But as far as the squad is going, it'll be pretty similar to what it has been.”