Why Hibs have no reason to fear Rangers - fan view

The first half was a pretty dull affair, Hibs dominated but it was a tired performance littered with misplaced passes and unforced errors as Hibs struggled to break down a Ross County side who showed the bare minimum of attacking intent themselves.

Emiliano Marcondes had the best chance of the first half, latching on to a rebound from Myziane Maolida’s shot only to hit the grounded Ross County keeper with the goal at his mercy. Hibs, though, never looked in any trouble at the other end, with David Marshall’s only meaningful involvement being a routine save of a long-range effort after a rare County counterattack.

Nick Montgomery swapped Nathan Moriah-Welsh for Dylan Levitt at half time, and this was the catalyst to an improved second half performance. Levitt has been criticised for letting games pass him by this season, but you sensed that he was determined to make an impact on this match.

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Levitt was involved in both of Hibs’ goals, and while the opening goal owed a lot to good fortune after a blunder by County’s keeper, George Wickens. It started with a lovely pirouette from Levitt, before he set Dylan Vente scampering down the right wing, Vente hit a speculative low cross into the box which should have been easily collected by Wickens, however the ball cannoned off his chest and into the path of Maolida, who poked the ball home.

If the opening goal owed a lot to a touch of good fortune, the second was a moment of quality from Levitt, who collected a pass from Elie Youan at the edge of the area, before dribbling into the box and passing the ball low into the bottom corner.

The goal settled the nerves of the Hibs support who had seen David Marshall deny Eamonn Brophy moments earlier when the County forward really should have scored, and Hibs saw out the game comfortably.  

The second half was a far more entertaining affair than the first, and Hibs  should have won by more than the two goals that we scored. However, the win was crucial for the season, and in lifting Hibs into the top six it also resurrects the slim chance of a fourth place finish, although St Mirren’s late winner against Aberdeen dented those hopes.

After the exertions of Wednesday night, it is probably fair to cut the team some slack for the slow start to the game. In hindsight, Hibs did enough to get the job done comfortably, and it always looked like we could move up a gear if we really needed it.

Rangers come to Easter Road on Sunday to face Hibs in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup. Hibs can’t afford a slow start to this match, and with Rangers having to deal with a tricky European tie away to Benfica in midweek, fans will be looking for Hibs to come out of the traps flying.

Our recent record against Rangers doesn’t make for pleasant reading, and despite Rangers’ loss to Motherwell at the weekend, their form since the arrival of Philippe Clement has been excellent.

I do fancy Hibs on Sunday, though. I always think there’s an advantage to playing Rangers after a European night, and with Rangers challenging on a number of fronts, they might just feel that the Scottish Cup isn’t quite the priority it might have been if they were out of the title race already.

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From a Hibs perspective, we’ve seen from our performances against Hearts and Celtic that we have nothing to fear from Rangers. We are more than capable of competing in this game, and while I think if we’d had to play this tie a month ago you could have confidently predicted Rangers would win, I think the Hibs team of today have enough about them to make calling the outcome a lot tougher now.

We have players in the team who won’t be overawed by the occasion or the opponent, this was evident from the display at Tynecastle on Wednesday, when Hibs took the game to Hearts and played with a confidence that allowed us to play our own game, rather than get drawn into the kick and rush style that usually typifies a derby.

Of course, despite these small margins that might go in our favour, the reality is that Rangers are as tough an opponent as we could get, and Hibs will need to be at their absolute best to progress in the competition, but what a lift that would give everyone at the club.

At a time when the mood is already shifting positively for what looks like a cracking run in to the end of the season, a win on Sunday would do more than anything to crank up the good feeling.