While Hearts eased aside Championship leaders Stenhousemuir 3-0 on Friday, Hibs also avoided a possible cup shock of their own the following day when beating League 1 favourites Ross County by the same scoreline.<\/p>\n
It was a welcome boost for Gray given pressure was beginning to mount following a run of one win in five outings, including a Conference League exit and that derby loss.<\/p>\n
“It will be a brilliant game to look forward to,” the 38-year-old Scot said. “The stadium will be packed out. I think, no matter who you get in the semi-final, if you look at the four teams that were left, it was always going to be a brilliant atmosphere in any of the games. <\/p>\n
“The fact that you’ve got an Edinburgh derby definitely adds a little bit more spice to it. I watched the draw and right off the back of it you’re saying ‘I’ll enjoy that one when it comes round’.”<\/p>\n
It will be the first Edinburgh derby at Hampden since Hearts prevailed by 2-1 in a Scottish Cup semi-final in 2022 and, while the Tynecastle side lead 5-1 in League Cup meetings, it is the first time they have met at this stage.<\/p>\n
While Hearts have been to the final twice thereafter, but not since 2013, they have not lifted the League Cup since winning it for the fourth time 1962.<\/p>\n
Hibs have themselves lost in the final twice since lifting the trophy for a third time in 2007.<\/p>\n
However, this will be the first League Cup semi-final for both clubs since Hibs lost to Aberdeen and Hearts were beaten by Rangers in November 2023.<\/p>\n
“On that stage, packed out, full house, against your local rivals, it’s a brilliant opportunity,” Gray said of the match to be played on either Saturday, 31 October or the following day.<\/p>\n
It is a first semi-final for Gray as Hibs head coach, although he was caretaker for their last final appearance, when they lost out to Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic in December 2021.<\/p>\n
“It’s definitely something that’s eluded us – me especially – for two seasons,” Gray, whose side host Kilmarnock in the league on Tuesday, added.<\/p>\n
“But, going into every game, we’ve demonstrated that we’re good enough on our day with a complete performance to be competitive against anybody.<\/p>\n
“Clearly, it’s an Edinburgh derby, which adds to that atmosphere and adds to the occasion. A very special one when it comes around. “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Hearts eased aside Championship leaders Stenhousemuir 3-0 on Friday, Hibs also avoided a possible cup shock of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-891969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}