Ian Murray and Guillaume Beuzelin return to their former stomping ground and hope to pull off a League Cup surprise as they bring their Dumbarton squad to Easter Road to face Hibs.
The part timers travel East after falling to a 4-1 defeat to Rangers on Saturday but will be hoping to prey on a lack of confidence amongst a Hibs team reeling from back to back defeats to Hearts and Falkirk.
Despite Saturday’s loss to the Bairns, Hibs boss Alan Stubbs has remained upbeat despite supporters over critical analysis of a display which should have seen the Hibees register a comfortable victory.
With such a small squad at his disposal, it’s unlikely Stubbs will make wholesale changes for a tie against the Championship minnows.
Danny Handling and Sam Stanton may make a return to the starting line up whilst the rarely seen Owain Tudor Jones could make an infrequent start should the Head Coach decide to change his central midfield with Liam Craig suspended and Scott Allan still to reach peak fitness with the latter having been replaced in the closing stages of Saturday’s match.
Vital Quotes:
Alan Stubbs: “We`ll put our strongest team as possible out.
“I don`t believe in making wholesale changes, I don`t think it`s right. I don`t think it`s right to the paying public. I think they deserve to see a team on the pitch that is worthy of winning the game.
“It`s my own personal opinion, it`s not necessarily the opinion of other people, but I`m trying to get into the mindset and philosophy that you approach every game to win every game. In order to do that you have to put your strongest teams out all the time.
“We could potentially win this competition so why would I want to take chances in the early rounds, or any round to put a team out that might not necessarily be one that could win the game.”
“Every team that I put out will have a realistic chance of winning the game. I`ll never put a team out with eight kids and one or two people that are on the fringes of playing. From my point of view, I don`t think it`s right for your fans to turn up to see that when they`ve paid their hard-earned money.”
Ian Murray: ‘It’s another big game for us and we are all looking forward to going to Hibs.
‘Easter Road is a great stage to play football and it’ll be great experience for our lads.
“We have players that can hurt teams and we need to start doing that. Hopefully we can show that side of our game at Hibs as well as defend better.”
Hibernian Team News:
Paul Hanlon is unlikely to be risked as he continues to recover from a knee injury whilst Scott Robertson returns from his suspension and Lewis Stevenson completes his two match ban.
Also suspended is Hibs captain Liam Craig.
Player to watch: Alex Harris
Came in for some unwarranted stick from fans in the East Stand on Saturday for refusing to go through Falkirk ‘keeper Jamie McDonald in a chase for a ball he was never going to win – showing the current mentality of some of the home support who forgot some of his earlier fine play.
The youngster has quality in abundance and will hopefully start proving the doubters wrong sooner rather than later.
Dumbarton Team News:
Goalkeeper Jamie Ewings, once on Hibs books, is ruled out with Danny Rogers deputising.
Defender Lee Mair is a doubt after receiving a knock in Saturday’s defeat to Rangers.
Player to watch: Colin Nish
Another former Hibee makes his return to Easter Road hoping to roll back the years and lead his side to victory.
Match Facts & Stats
The last meeting between the sides was some 26 years ago in a Scottish Cup replay which Hibs won 3-0 following a 0-0 at Dumbarton’s then home ground, Boghead.
Neil Orr, Joe Tortolano and an o.g by Dumbarton’s McCahill were the Hibees scorers on that occasion.
Match Prediction:
Hibs will have to show the killer instinct missing on Saturday but should record a comfortable victory.
3-0 Hibees.
Next Fixtures:
Hibs face Alloa on league duty this Saturday.
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