Shaun Maloney irked by Hearts celebrations as he calls on Hibs players to 'change narrative of season'

Hibs boss Shaun Maloney pointed the finger at Hearts’ derby win celebrations as he urged his players to determine the narrative of their own season and that of their capital rivals.

After last weekend’s defeat at Tynecastle, which ended the Leith side’s hopes of seeing out the remainder of the Premiership campaign in the top six, Hibs head to Hampden on Saturday well aware that they not only have the chance to move a step closer to silverware and the bonus prize of European football, they could also seek revenge on their neighbours by denying them the opportunity to lift the Scottish Cup this term and increasing the likelihood that they will have to work a little harder to earn a place in the European group stages.

To do that the Easter Road outfit will need to turnaround last weekend’s 3-1 defeat and do something the club has been unable to do throughout its history – beat Hearts at Hampden.

“This club has a fantastic history but this weekend the players have the opportunity to do something that has never been done,” stated Maloney, who seems to have been fired up by some celebrations during and after last week’s head-to-head. “It’s a fantastic opportunity and they can go and grasp that.”

Hibs manager Shaun Maloney looks ahead to the Scottish Cup semi-final against Hearts. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

Having sewn up third place, Hearts manager Robbie Neilson has challenged his players to turn a very good season into a great one by beating their foes in the semi-final and then going on to add silverware. But Maloney says the match means as much to his men as it does to the Tynecastle side.

“I don’t need to stress that, the brilliant thing is this game comes so soon after a big disappointment.

“And we have a chance to change the narrative of our season, and in doing that we can change the narrative of our biggest rivals, and they’ll know that too.

“That’s in our hands.

“We’ll go into this game confident, not overconfident. I did sense after the game, the celebrations during and after it…look, how they celebrate a win is up to them but we have certain values at our club so that means we won’t be going into any game with overconfidence.

“We really don’t want to feel like we did last weekend. We need to use that.”

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