Stevenson feels like a Hibs old boy but vows to up game

Over the course of the 90 minutes, boss Colin Calderwood gave no fewer than 12 players aged 21 or under a run, the youngest of them being 17-year-old Danny Handling, while the travelling support caught their first glimpses of teenagers Ross Caldwell and David Gold.

Today Stevenson revealed he felt a shiver run down his spine, recalling his own first team debut at 17, that League Cup tie against Ayr United at Somerset Park six years ago seeming as if it belonged to another lifetime.

Since then, Kirkcaldy-born Stevenson has enjoyed an Easter Road roller coaster, Calderwood now the fifth manager for the player named man-of-the-match at 19 as Hibs thumped Kilmarnock 5-1 to lift the CIS Insurance Cup.

Only a few months ago it looked as if his time in Leith was up after he was restricted to just 11 starts, although the season did see him pass the 100-match landmark in a green and white shirt while he also claimed his first - and to date only - goal for the club.

Now, though, Stevenson is determined to make the most of the one-year deal Calderwood offered him at a time when the dressing-room underwent something of a clear-out with virtually every player coming to the end of their current contract released.

So far it has been promising compared to last season when Stevenson had to wait until the middle of October for his first match, the 2-1 win over Kilmarnock which separated the departure of John Hughes and the arrival of Calderwood.

Stevenson, however, is his own harshest critic, happy with his place in the starting line-up for the opening match against Celtic, but disgusted enough with his second-half performance to dismiss it as "minging".

He said: "Last season was disappointing for me - the longest run of games I got was five or six which is not ideal. But I reckon you go into every season with a clean slate, looking to be positive and to do the very best you can.

"I felt I did quite well in the pre-season games, and the gaffer is honest; if he thinks you are doing well and can do the job then he will play you.

"Of course I was happy to be given a start in the first match of the season - that's what every player works towards - but while I thought I did well enough in the first half I'll hold my hands up and admit I didn't play at all well. However, I've learned not to dwell on things, if I thought too much about that second-half display I'd probably never want to play again."

Even four stitches inserted around his left eye following an accidental clash with team-mate Danny Galbraith the morning before the match wasn't, Stevenson insisted, something he'd seek to highlight, describing the injury as "a wee battle wound", while branding his performance simply "inexcusable."

Stevenson and Paul Hanlon were the only players who started against Celtic who heard the first whistle at Blackpool as Calderwood sought to give each member of his squad much-needed game-time in what was a pre-season match for the host club.

And during it the fact he was now the Hibs player with the longest consecutive service hit home as he watched teenagers Scott Smith, Lewis Horner, Scott Taggart, David Crawford, Handling, Caldwell and Gold all face up to a side which was taking on the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal only a few weeks ago.

He said: "It was a bit scary to think I have five or six years on some of them even although I am only 23 myself. In fact, we play the young ones against the old ones in training and I'm quite comfortably one of the old ones."

Stevenson is equally aware that it will be up to him and senior pros such as Garry O'Connor, Ivan Sproule, Ian Murray and Sean O'Hanlon to whom the kids will be looking for guidance very much in the way he was taken under the wing of players like Guillaume Beuzelin, Michael Stewart, Scott Brown, David Murphy, Kevin Thomson and Steven Whittaker as he made the breakthrough under Tony Mowbray.

He said: "We had big characters in our dressing-room back then. Now it's up to guys like myself to help these youngsters today, to help them find their feet and make the grade. There's a lot of potential there once again and hopefully that will be good for the club in the not-too-distant future."

The immediate future for Stevenson and his team-mates, however, is another long coach journey this weekend to their bogey ground, Inverness' Caledonian Tulloch Stadium, where, he doesn't need any reminding that Hibs have never won.

He said: "I've been there more than most. It has always been a place where we haven't enjoyed the best of records. But, like everything, it has to come to an end some time and Saturday wouldn't be a bad time for that to happen."