Hibs manager Jack Ross has set his sights on lifting the Scottish Cup after edging past Motherwell in the quarter-finals.
Christian Doidge and Jackson Irvine goals looked to have settled a comfortable afternoon for Hibs but two late goals from Motherwell made it 2-2 and pushed the game beyond extra-time and into penalties. Ryan Porteous scored the decisive kick that sends the Easter Road club into their fourth consecutive domestic cup semi-final.
Ross said the trophy is the ultimate aim: “We set big ambitions at the start of the season and winning the cup was one of them. There was nothing wrong with us doing that as a club. But the players have got to stand up to it. We have been close, two semi-finals to date and now we are in a third.
“We believe we are a good enough group to do it – but you have got to prove it on the park. For 80 minutes we showed that in abundance – we were really good. The game took a turn in the last 10 but then we showed good character in extra-time.
“We were excellent, dominant and deserved to be in the position we were in. But the last 10 minutes, to be fair to Graham and Motherwell, they made changes and threw caution to the wind. We should still have been better and I think at that point they took better momentum and mentality into extra-time. For us it was about re-setting and I felt we did that.
“Extra-time was more open and stretched but our subs helped us. We handled that half-hour period well. Then it becomes about carrying that character into the penalty shoot-out and we showed that. The players have improved and grown over the season. But every team who reaches this last four stage will believe they can go on and win it.
“Right now, my feeling isn’t of relief. It’s pride and elation. It’s not easy to win quarter-finals so it’s pride in the players at winning another game and progressing to the semi-finals. As a group, this is another test we’ve passed.
“We just want to win the semi-final now. We won’t care if we are horrific on the day as long as we win it. When you’ve had the pain of losing these last two semi-finals, we want to make sure we have the elation of getting through.”
Ross didn’t have an easy time of picking five players when it went to the shootout – as several wanted involved: “A lot of the players do stuff after training although some people may be surprised at who actually took them. We have Paul McGinn for example, whose record in penalty shoot-outs is exceptional, even back at St Mirren.
“Ryan is technically very good so we had faith in a lot of the players. Picking five from them was actually the problem! And we had a big presence in the goals too with Matt Macey, which helped us too.”
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