Hibs captain Gray hoping for Hampden return
Hibs skipper David Gray has welcomed the chance to get over his side's Hampden disappointment with another attempt to get back to the national stadium.
Hibs skipper David Gray has welcomed the chance to get over his side's Hampden disappointment with another attempt to get back to the national stadium.
Hibs can go some way to easing the pain of Sunday's League Cup final defeat to Ross County when they take on Inverness in a William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final replay on Wednesday night.
Sunday's last-minute defeat remains raw for Gray but he would rather book a return Hampden trip than wallow in the misery.
The right-back said: It's always a good thing to have a game so quickly after a defeat because you don't have so much time to dwell on it.
It would have been harder if we weren't in on Monday, that might have been a day off just thinking about it.The manager impressed on us after the game, there is not much he can do to comfort us but we have to go again.''
Gray is determined to ensure a season which promised so much does not fizzle out.
Hibs have not won in five matches - three consecutive Ladbrokes Championship defeats saw them fall out of the title race and Andrea Mbuyi-Mutombo's late equaliser consigned them to their midweek trip to the Highlands.
The most important thing for us from the start of the season was promotion, so we need to make sure we do that,'' the 27-year-old said.That's been our aim right from the word go and the cup runs have been a great bonus.
It's been great for the fans to have a good day out on Sunday. Unfortunately it wasn't the right result but hopefully there will be more moments to come.
If we can get back there as soon as possible, we can only be stronger from the experience we had on Sunday. I missed the game last season, so to miss a Scottish Cup semi-final was disappointing and we have had more disappointment again so we don't want to taste that again.
We know what it took to get to Hampden before and the first game against Inverness was a real tough game and we are expecting the same again.But you get nothing unless you put the ball in the back of the net and unfortunately we got nothing from it on Sunday.''
The former Scotland Under-21 international is eager to give the Hibs fans cause for celebration in the form of a second consecutive Scottish Cup semi-final after about 30,000 of them trooped out of Hampden with nothing to show for their trip on Sunday.
They have been outstanding all season,'' Gray said.
They have had tough times in the last couple of years dealing with relegation and they have stuck by us. During my time at the club they have been great.
Unfortunately we couldn't get over the line on Sunday to give them something to cheer about but I want to thank them for coming out in numbers and I'm sure there will be some up in Inverness on Wednesday and hopefully we can repay their faith by getting back to Hampden as soon as possible.''