Hibs travel to Dunfermline tomorrow, where David Gray will face off against one of his former managers for the first time in his career.

Gray was Lennon’s captain at Hibs from 2016-2019 where he lead the Edinburgh side to the Championship title and European football upon their return to the Premiership the following season.

Neil Lennon currently finds himself at Championship side Dunfermline Athletic, who sit 5th in the table. After back-to-back postponements, Dunfermline haven’t played a competitive game since December 27th, where they beat local rivals Raith Rovers.  Hibs come into the game on good form, boasting a five match unbeaten streak, which also includes a win against their local rivals Hearts on the 27th December.

When asked for his perspective on his experiences with Gray, Lennon said: “He took on the responsibility of being captain very well. The players gravitated to him. He was a very good player. He scored some really important goals for me in Europe and domestic games as well. He was so committed. Loved to tackle. He was pretty consistent.

“He was a really good captain for me. He was a really good buffer between me and the players. Whether I saw him being a head coach or not, you don’t think about those things at the time. Looking at him now, it’s a perfect fit.

“Sometimes he was probably a bit more mature than myself.”

Throughout his time at Hibs, David Gray has been managed by Alan Stubbs, Neil Lennon, Paul Heckingbottom and Jack Ross before hanging his boots up to join Jack Ross’ coaching staff, where he remained and worked under Shaun Maloney, Lee Johnson and Nick Montgomery. Upon the dismissal of each of these coaches, Gray would take charge on an interim basis before eventually landing the full time job last season.

However, the start to Gray’s managerial career was extremely chaotic as Hibs only mustered one win from their opening fourteen, before producing a seventeen game unbeaten run, securing third place and European football. When asked for his thoughts on his ex-player’s resilience, Lennon said:

“I thought he was brilliant last year because he had such a difficult start

“He weathered all that pressure and scrutiny. He came out the other side of it to have a brilliant second half of the season.

“At the start of the year, they were really good in Europe. Now they’ve hit a really good form again despite having a couple of players missing.

“I’m delighted for him because I know what Hibs means to him. He’s a young coach. He’s had a real baptism of fire. He’s handled it brilliantly.”

David Gray offered his own comments on Lennon’s time at Hibs, he said: “I’ve said a few times, he’s very much what the club needed at the time when they brought him in just after Alan Stubbs left and that was someone who’s got that winning mentality every single day in training, that’s what he wanted to see, he wanted his teams to be winning and driving that standard all the time.

“It was exactly what we needed to get out of the Championship, we’d spent too long in the Championship as a football club

“That attitude of making sure you’re going into every game with that winning mentality and it was definitely something he instilled in the team straight away and I fully expect that mindset to be going towards the Dunfermline players at the weekend, making sure they’re right up for it.”

Ahead of this year’s Scottish Cup campaign, David Gray will be hoping to lead Hibs to the trophy 10 years after he scored the stoppage time winner as Hibs lifted the trophy for the first time in 114 years.

Despite already having the chance to do so, a Scottish Cup win would also make David Gray the first person to win a trophy with Hibs as both a player and manager since Famous Five member and club legend Eddie Turnbull did so with his ‘Turnbull’s Tornadoes’ side in 1972. Gray lost the 2021 Premier Sports Cup final to Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic when in interim charge following the sacking of Jack Ross.

Hibs travel to Dunfermline Athletic tomorrow for a 12:30 kick-off in the Scottish Cup fourth round, live on BBC Scotland in a match that is set to have a massive crowd inside East End Park as Hibs are expecting 5,000 of their own in the away end.