David Gray shows his delight in the performance as Hibs return to the National Stadium.
Hibs defeated Ross County 4-0 in Dingwall as Hibs return to Hampden Park, joining Hearts and Aberdeen as well as the winner of Rangers v Celtic tomorrow afternoon.
David Gray said: “I thought that, I mentioned that a wee bit recently the last couple of games, much more like us, much more aggressive, I asked the players to really give the opposition a fright to show why we are a Premier League side, we did a verry good one at that, we put it all together, I thought it was a real professional performance with all the pressure going into the game, we know its a Premier League side against on paper, a league one side, I never once said that because I do believe that they are a very good side with a vey experienced manager, experienced players that played at much a higher level. So, it was always going to be a difficult tie.”
Gray added: “Today was all about making sure you’re in the next round of the cup, we’re not getting carried away. I’m not thinking that everything’s great. It’s very much so a massive pat on the back for the players because of the pressure they they were under this week to make sure we delivered and bounced back and most importantly sent the club back to Hampden to a semi-final which is something that’s alluded to as a manager in the last couple of seasons.”
Gray was asked whether players who didn’t feature in Dingwall on whether they will be back in time for Tuesday against Kilmarnock as well as the overall squad.
Gray said: “It’s probably too early to say. It’s day by day with Marco really because he, him and Granty [Grant Hanley] are the two that we’re needing at this moment in time. You look at the end there Jason [Kerr] was limping a bit at the end Jack Iredale struggling a bit not with a lot of minutes so we’re a lot thin defensively but at the same time, same as today you just have to make sure you get on with it, recover the boys as quick as you can.”
The Hibs boss added: “Jordan Obita won’t be back, Jordan Smith won’t be back until after the International break. Jamie McGrath will be touch and go between now and the International break but at the same time as we demonstrated today, you need everybody in your squad, it benefits having so many fixtures we had the boys are fit that have been playing and we’re going to need a big push now for the final week and then we can get a breather after that.”
Hibs have a busy week ahead where they host Kilmarnock on Tuesday evening before welcoming Aberdeen to Leith on Saturday.