Hibs v Celtic: Calderwood targets first ‘big win’ in Hibs hotseat

Wins of any description have been hard to come by for Hibs since the start of last year, when a poor run of results continued into the new season and cost John Hughes his job. The biggest victory of Calderwood’s tenure to date was last November, when Hibs won 3-0 at Ibrox after losing their first three games under their new manager.

So far this season Hibs have won three SPL games and two League Cup matches, with a win on penalties at Fir Park having taken them into the last eight of the latter competition. Asked how a win over Celtic would compare to those wins and the others from last season, Calderwood said he was sure it would outrank them. “I think the rewards for a win are greater,” he said. “We need one real big result, and something like this would in essence be it, because it would take you right into the New Year still challenging in a major competition. The reward is bigger than any other game I’ve certainly been involved in.

“You don’t want to have a good performance against Motherwell and waste that. It would be just away and no-one would remember it.”

Hibs won the League Cup in 2007 and, having posted an annual loss of £900,000 last week, could do with the extra income which would arise if they were to win the trophy next spring. “Financially it would be a great help,” the manager added. “[The 2007 win] has been one of our biggest income streams in recent years. We’re all aware of that. And it will be a definite lift to Hibernian supporters.”

Having indulged briefly in such optimistic talk, however, Calderwood reverted to a more cautious frame of mind when asked if he thought the positive effects of a big win over Celtic could be long-lasting. “I would doubt it.

“You can’t guarantee that. It just puts you in the semi-final of the League Cup, and that’s not until next year. So you’ve always got something to look forward to, and obviously a game away from achieving a final. That would be the help.

“I don’t see how it would help us too much. It won’t hinder us. We all go to bed and then get up and you’ve got to start again.

“I don’t think there would be a significant change from a result like that helping us so much. It would be much more of a gradual process in terms of progression in the league. The league form has got to be a package of games.”

Acknowledging that musing about beating Celtic was a whole lot easier than doing it, Calderwood said that in planning for tomorrow he would take the possibility of extra time into account. “We’ve got to have the ambition to try and be able to score a goal. That means trying to get your goalscorers and goal-creators on the pitch for as long as possible.

“We need an awareness of [the fact that] it might be 120 minutes, and make sure we’re keeping a team getting stronger in different ways. That comes into my thinking in terms of the starting 11. We’ve got to pose them a problem, and the way to do that is have people in form and scoring goals on the pitch.

“I think they’re on some sort of an up. To come back from where they were against Kilmarnock shows great determination. They’ve gone and won that 3-0 in the second half. You only get one point, but that was a huge turnaround. A good performance in Europe and then a home win.

“It is a cup tie that they’ll expect to win and one that we want to win. I focus on us and the elation we can achieve if we can get through and then to be in a semi-final. It’s not my job to think about what they’re thinking.”