Hibs 3- 0 Irvine Meadow: Huge sighs of relief around Easter Road

His mind undoubtedly would have drifted back to that day 15 years ago when Celtic struggled to dispense with Whitehill Welfare on this very same ground.

Then, as now, wild predictions were made of just how many goals the Scottish Cup minnows would ship, history repeating itself as Hughes' Hibs emerged victorious, just as he did under Tommy Burns in 1996 but, again, with all the credit going to the lesser lights.

It was being armed with that experience which had prompted Hughes in the build-up to this historic clash, the first between an SPL side and a Junior outfit, to warn against over-optimism, arguing that a 1-0 win would be enough regardless of the degree of opprobrium it would bring on the shoulders of both him and his players.

Back in his days as a player, Hughes watched as Whitehill proved stubborn opponents, the East of Scotland side's resistance broken only in the final 15 minutes of a tie, switched from Rosewell to Easter Road to accommodate a crowd of 13,000, as Simon Donnelly and Pierre van Hooijdonk added to the Dutchman's late first-half strike.

"The Medda", however, proved more than obdurate, surprising many in Saturday's crowd with their desire to get forward to test Hibs goalkeeper Graeme Smith who did have his moments of worry, surviving a penalty claim, correctly, as former Easter Road youngster Richie Barr went down and then watching on in hope as Brian McGinty's curling effort came off the woodwork.

As Irvine boss Chris Strain admitted, had either of those incidents gone his side's way, particularly the penalty shout when the game was goalless, then we might have been reading about a very different outcome today.

Hibs, though, did enough without ever hitting the sort of form of which they are capable, the Ayrshire club finding themselves behind after 32 minutes as right-back Zander Ryan and Derek Riordan made for David Wotherspoon's low cross.

Ryan appeared to get the last touch but referee Euan Norris credited Riordan with the goal, much to the delight of a striker who has already seen two efforts this season awarded as own goals.

"Derek is claiming it, he's a striker," was the opinion of Paul Hanlon, who himself had put any hope of an Irvine comeback to an end as he made it three 14 minutes after the interval, Merouane Zemmama having clipped home Hibs' second just before the break.

A comfortable but less-than-convincing victory but, as both Hughes and Hanlon insisted, the over-riding factor was being in the fifth-round draw.

Hughes said: "I expected that. Junior sides are always well-organised, resolute and they came and gave it a go.

"I painted the picture before the game, that there would be one or two passes going astray, that they'd have one or two chances and I called for patience. That's how it worked out.

"But the bottom line is that we put ourselves in the hat for the draw."

Hanlon echoed his manager's delight at having avoided the banana skin of either a draw or, heaven forbid, defeat, adding: "We were pleased to get through. I was happy with my goal but disappointed with my performance to be honest.

"I think a few of the boys feel the same way.

"I think most people expected them to sit back and soak up a bit of pressure but to their credit they pushed forward, had a few chances and I am sure they will be delighted with their performance."

Zemmama, too, expressed disappointment at Hibs' display, rejecting the suggestion that having played Rangers and Hearts in their previous matches, he and his team-mates had found it difficult to raise themselves for the visit of a Junior side.

The little Moroccan playmaker said: "When you are a professional it does not matter whether you are playing Hearts and then a Junior team.

"You must play with focus, spirit and motivation. You are playing for yourself and the club and you have to be very good every week.

"I wasn't surprised by them. They worked hard and played with their heart but we need to play better. We had to pass the ball better but the pitch was bobbly and that made it a bit difficult."

And just as Hoops boss Burns had heaped praise on Whitehill all those years ago, Hughes had nothing but admiration for Irvine Meadow.

He said: "All credit to them, they were flying the flag for the Juniors, they made a right game of it, their supporters were fantastic and we needed to dig in and make sure of it.

"I played three or four years in the Juniors with Newtongrange Star, loved every minute of it and I know what it takes to play at that level. Irvine can walk away with their heads held high."

Given Irvine hadn't had a competitive match since thumping Aberdeen side Hillhead 5-0 in the Emirates Scottish Junior Cup at the beginning of December, the manner in which they lasted the 90 minutes, despite evidence of tiring legs long before the end, left boss Chris Strain "very proud" of his players.

He said: "They put on a great show. They hadn't played for five weeks and probably ran out of steam a bit. Who knows? If we'd got the penalty it would have given us something to hang on to and we might have made it difficult but Hibs are certainly a good side."

As Irvine tired both towards the end of the first half and again as the final whistle neared, Hibs did have chances to record a far more emphatic victory but Hughes insisted: "We were on a hiding to nothing but to have scored one or two more might have been a bit hard on them."

The Hibs manager was also relieved that the match had gone ahead while so many others had fallen victim to the wintry weather.

Hughes paid tribute to the ground staff at the stadium who had worked through the night to ensure the tie survived, thereby helping Hibs, who already have one SPL match outstanding, avoid, at least so far, the danger of a fixtures pile-up which others may now suffer.

He said: "It was massively important the game went ahead. A lot went off, one or two teams will go out but we've put our tie to bed and now we can concentrate on the league."

Again, Hanlon was in full agreement, adding: "You want to play and get to the next round, others still have that to do. You'd rather have games out of the way than find yourself having a backlog of three or four."