ALAN STUBBS, the Hibernian manager, wants to give the club's long-suffering supporters their 'I was there' moment this afternoon by inspiring his team to a famous comeback in their play-off semi-final against Rangers.
The Easter Road outfit have a mountain to climb following Wednesday's 2-0 defeat at Ibrox and have been written off in many quarters as Stuart McCall's side travel east seeking to finish the job.
Stubbs, however, has firm belief his players can come back from the brink and has cited some of football's most celebrated - and last-gasp - recoveries to illustrate why there is still hope. Stubbs was himself involved in one - in 1995 when Bolton Wanderers won promotion to the English Premier League with an epic extra-time win over Reading, despite having been 2-0 down with just 15 minutes to play.
Meanwhile, it is almost 10 years to the day since Liverpool roared back from a 3-0 half-time deficit against AC Milan to win the 2005 Champions League on penalties, whilst Manchester City snatched the league title away from bitter rivals United three years ago with an amazing two-goal turnaround in stoppage time on the last day of the campaign. And Stubbs is desperate for the Hibs fans - who experienced the opposite emotion when their favourites threw away a two-goal advantage to be relegated in last season's play-off against Hamilton Academical - to taste their own piece of folklore in the making by giving them an afternoon to remember for years to come.
"We've seen lots of occasions where these things turn around," said Stubbs, a boyhood Everton fan and former player. "Liverpool, which I hate saying, being 3-0 down at half-time in Istanbul and they go on and win it. Manchester United a couple of years ago win at Sunderland and City were drawing 2-2 [against QPR] before winning the league in the last seconds.
"You can go on - Hibs last year, 2-0 up from the first-leg and lost it. Why can't it be roles reversed this year? It can be done, simple as that. I want this to be an occasion that fans will look back on in years to come and say: 'I was there, I was there when it was turned around'.
"If you don't believe it there's no point saying it. I believe we're firmly right in this tie. As long as we score the first goal, I don't see any reason why we can't overcome the scoreline. The fans will play a huge role. We want them to come and really make it vociferous before the game. "Then we have an obligation during the game to give them something to shout about. It is going to be a blend of them giving us something and us giving them something. It's not just a one-way street where we expect them to come and be noisy and intimidating and then we don't play our part. Everything has to be put in the mix so it all comes together."
Stubbs has repeated his belief that Hibs did not play badly in going down at Ibrox on Wednesday, but has accepted they will have to be sharper in the final third if they want to produce the desired comeback. However, he has called for patience in the hope neither his players nor the supporters are frustrated if the early goal they so crave does not materialise.
"We don't necessarily have to be back level in the game in the first 10 minutes. It's not an easy balance to strike, it's fair to say. Is there a difference between trying to score two goals in the first 10 minutes or the last? It's exactly the same outcome.
"I know which one I would like to do but we've just got to make sure we bring our A-game. This is our most important performance of the season. We've got to try to put Rangers under as much pressure as we can."
Meanwhile, defender Liam Fontaine insists he is ready for this afternoon's second leg to go all the way to extra-time and even penalties as both teams seek the right to face Motherwell in the final.
"It's got the potential to go there, of course it has," Fontaine said. "If it goes to extra-time then we have to face it and if it goes to penalties then it goes to penalties. I'd rather take the result within the 90 minutes, but if it does take extra-time it takes extra-time.
"First and foremost we have to go out there and get the goals back, that's the first aim."
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