Stand-in Hibernian captain Lewis Stevenson has called for his team to show their character when they take on surprise package Arbroath in the Scottish Cup.
Hibs arguably landed one of the toughest assignments in the fifth round when they were handed a trip to Gayfield to face the part-timers who extended their lead at the top of the cinch Championship to five points on Wednesday.
Hibs have yet to win a league match in 2022 after going down 2-0 against Rangers on Wednesday and needed a solitary extra-time goal to see off Cove Rangers in the fourth round.
Stevenson knows many people will be looking out for a cup upset on Sunday.
“Oh, totally, I’m sure that’s why it got put on the telly,” he said. “But that’s why you need big characters.
“I’ve played in a lot of these games in the past and touch wood we’ve come out on top in most of them.
“We have to win it. It might be dirty, it might be a horrible win, a 1-0 scraped win, or we might play really well. But all we’re focusing on is getting a result.
“They’re flying, they’ve been winning all season. I’ve never actually played there but I’ve obviously seen them on the telly a few times this season, and they’ve got good players, good attacking players.
“I know a few of them from when we played in the Championship so I know it’s going to be a tough game – a different kind of game to Rangers, but just as hard.
“They’re flying, they score a lot of goals, and it’s going to be a battle. We need to roll our sleeves up.
“It’s a must-win game. Nothing else matters apart from this game and it will maybe take our mind off the league for a wee bit, being able to focus on the cup.
“We just need to roll the sleeves up and start taking our chances.”
As well as standing in for injured captain Paul Hanlon, Stevenson was back in central midfield amid the absence of Joe Newell and Kyle Magennis and following the departures of Alex Gogic and Melker Hallberg.
“It’s just one of those things -we’ve had a lot of injuries in key positions so people need to fill in and do a job where they can,” said the 34-year-old defender.
“I’m happy to play anywhere. I’ve played there before, although it has been a while.
“Rangers are probably strongest in midfield so we didn’t see a lot of the ball but I think I defended all right. Maybe I should have been better on the ball at times, but it does take a bit of getting used to, especially at Ibrox.”
