Scottish Cup curse has taken toll on Hibs . . . but we can’t let them lift it, says Miller
HAVING started his career with Hibs as a youngster, Kenny Miller knows just how heavily their infamous failure to win the Scottish Cup since 1902 weighs on everyone at Easter Road.
Yet, the striker believes there could be an even greater burden to bear – being the club that loses to Hibs as they end their interminable wait for success.
Miller, who will line up against his former club in the final of the William Hill-sponsored tournament at Hampden a week today, has no intention of that fate befalling Rangers.
Asked how conscious he had been of Hibs’s inability to prevail during his time at the Edinburgh club, he said: “Very. It was always mentioned. It was definitely something that, I wouldn’t say bothered you, but it was always in your head when Scottish Cup games come about, especially the latter stages.
“That is something that will continue for years to come if they don’t win it. This is their third final in five or six years, so they have had opportunities and been unlucky, unfortunate, haven’t performed, whatever it is and still haven’t managed to put it to bed.
“But we don’t want to be the team that goes down in history as the one they have won it against. We will be prepared and focus on what we need to do and if we do what we do, we will have enough to win the cup. For us, it is about making sure we go about our business in the right way.”
The near three-week gap between the final Ladbrokes Championship game of the season against St. Mirren away in Paisley earlier this month and the Scottish Cup final with Hibs next week has presented Rangers with some interesting challenges.
Miller admitted that going three weeks without a competitive match was far from ideal preparation for such an important fixture. However, the 36-yearold believes the closed-door game against Spurs in England earlier this week has been beneficial for Mark Warburton’s squad.
He is positive the Ibrox club will, despite their disappointing run since the Scottish Cup semi-final win over Celtic last month, be able to rediscover their best form in the meeting with Alan Stubbs’s men.
“A week, 10 days, two weeks, would probably have been perfect just to give any knocks and niggles a chance to dispel,” he said.
“This is probably a wee bit too long, but it is what it is. We had a good rest at the start of the month, a right cracking workout the other day down at Spurs and obviously now it’s a normal week’s preparation.
“We know if we turn up we have got more than enough.”
Martyn Waghorn, top scorer at Rangers this season with 28 goals to his name, played against Spurs and is in contention for a place in the starting line-up against Hibs despite his lack of involvement in the last three months.
The 26-year-old has only featured for an hour – in the 2-2 draw with St. Mirren in the league at the start of this month – in a meaningful game since suffering a serious knee injury in the 2-1 Scottish Cup win over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park back in February. But Miller is confident he will be able to contribute.
“He has looked decent,” he said. “He has been training for a while now.
“The 75 or 80 minutes that he got the other day will have been good for him. Okay, it was a closed doors game, but there was a real intensity about the performance.”