Hibs boss calls for focus ahead of cup clash with Ayr

Colin CALDERWOOD will urge his under-pressure players to hold their nerve as Ayr United arrive at Easter Road tomorrow aiming to cause a Scottish Cup upset.

The Hibs boss admitted the Somerset Park outfit are entitled to regard his side, languishing in tenth place in the SPL table and without a win in their last six matches, a run which has seen them pick up just two points, as "vulnerable".

Calderwood fully expects Ayr manager Brian Reid to ensure his side play on the anxiety which has enveloped Easter Road in recent weeks, but will demand his own players stand up to the test with "an exuberant performance".

"Can they look at us as being vulnerable," asked Calderwood before immediately answering his own question by saying: "Very much so.

"Against any team with a run of games like us without a win, you know the longer you stay in the game the more uncomfortable it becomes for them.

"It gives an extra incentive for Ayr United. What we have to do is not show we are the SPL side but show we can win the game. We have to be very positive, to have an exuberance about our performance and let everyone else judge who played SPL football, if anyone." Given Hibs' tortuous history in the competition – they haven't lifted the Cup since 1902 – Calderwood conceded that any Easter Road side which succeeded in doing so would automatically be accorded "hero status".

But answering the obligatory annual question as to whether this could, unlikely as it may seem at the moment, finally be Hibs' year, Calderwood admitted that while fully aware of the past it was far too early to start talking of a possible day out at Hampden at the end of May.

He said: "It seems strange with some of the quality teams they have had here that they haven't won it. You would have expected it, even through them luckily nicking a final.

"It has certainly become folklore and it is on everyone's mind. It would be an opportunity for any Hibs side to obtain hero status but that's at the end, that's not what happens at the start and we need to get started in the competition."

A former member of Ayr United Boys' Club, Calderwood returned to Somerset Park last Sunday to see them return to action after being idle for six weeks because of the weather to beat Dumbarton 2-0 and keep their promotion hopes very much alive. And he admitted he'd been impressed. "They look as if they have people that can score, they have a threat in the attacking third and we have to be very aware they have players who can cause problems."