ALAN Stubbs was a Celtic player when Inverness Caley Thistle famously went 'ballistic' to pull off one of the Scottish Cup's greatest-ever upsets, However, the Hibernian manager is adamant his side can avoid such an embarrassment against Berwick Rangers this afternoon.
Celtic's 3-1 defeat to their Highland raiders in February 2000 not only sent shockwaves through Scottish football, it also inspired the 'Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious' headline that ensured the moment would never be forgotten.
Stubbs himself was spared playing in the tie because of injury but was not able to avoid the embarrassment and devastating effect that the loss had at Parkhead.
The Hibs boss is now determined the Easter Road men will not succumb this afternoon to a cup shock that would take his new club to a new low in the tournament they have infamously not won in 113 years.
"I didn't play against Inverness, I was injured, so it was nothing to do with me!" he joked. "But I was there, and it wasn't a good experience - and the media attention afterwards was not great for the players. It's one of those where you just had to try to move on as quickly as possible.
"When you look back at the headline that followed the game, it was a good bit of journalism, but it wasn't good to be the team on the end of that.
"But it doesn't come into my mind-set when I look at Sunday that something like that could happen. You have to be positive. We have to go and take the game by the scruff of the neck and do what we're good at. Hopefully by doing that we'll put ourselves in a strong position to come through the tie."
Meanwhile, Mark Oxley, Hibernian's keeper, is hopeful the domestic bliss he currently enjoys with girlfriend Chloe on the outskirts of Berwick-upon-Tweed will not be shattered by this afternoon's encounter with the local football team.
"I live about 10 or 15 minutes away from Berwick," explained the 24-year-old. "I'm loving it. I've got a dog and he's out on the beaches and on the fields. It's good.
"Hopefully I won't get any stick doing my shopping after this game. Hopefully I stay under the radar. But it's all about Sunday. We're focused on that and we've got to put everything into place to win the game."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article