Hibs Hall of Fame opened its doors again last night and I guarantee my old pal Alan Rough won’t miss the opportunity to remind me he’s in there – and I’m not.
Roughie loves to tell folk if they walk up the staircase at Easter Road they’ll see him on the wall… but if they go into the toilet they’ll see me in the urinal! It’s all good banter. My old pal did make nearly 200 appearances for the club in six years although he won the same as me: nowt.
But he was a big figure for Hibs and a great character and deserves his place in the roll of honour. As do last night’s inductees. It was absolutely brilliant to see modern day legends Paul Hanlon and Lewis Stevenson inducted along with Joelle Murray, Alex Edwards, Tom Hart and Suzie Shephard. Hanlon and Stevenson’s achievements should be pinned up on a wall for every player at the club now – including those coming through the academy – to see exactly what is possible.
Stevenson: Scottish Cup winner, League Cup winner, 600 games for the club and fourth in the club’s all-time appearance list. Hanlon: Scottish Cup winner, former club captain, 564 appearances and just one place behind his mucker Stevenson in that list.
Two players with close to 40 years service to the club and who – I have no hesitation in saying – could still be doing a job in David Gray’s team had they not been released in the summer. Gray, of course, already has his place in the Hall of Fame thanks in no small part to his 2016 Scottish Cup final heroics.
These guys are all symbolic of what is possible for the modern day player at Easter Road. Silverware and hero status with the fans. Lawrie Reilly was the one I idolised as a young kid at Hibs. I was lucky I got to speak to him lots as he was always at games.
His achievements say it all: 185 goals in 253 league games, a member of the Famous Five, two times league winner, and a place in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame as well as the Hibs’ one. It was important to me to have guys like Lawrie to look up to and I’m sure Gray will be making that very point to the guys in the building now.
There’s a couple who could easily join him in the Hall of Fame and funnily enough both are back from spells out injured for tomorrow’s trip to face Dundee United. Martin Boyle has the Scottish Cup winners’ medal from 2016 even if he never got off the bench in the final.
His celebrations from that day are legendary. I think he went on a two month bender never mind a two-day one. Hibs fans love him and the team need him to produce because they’ve not scored nearly enough goals this season.
Martin’s not had a lot of luck with injuries and his blistering pace has always been so important to his game. So it can get frustrating when you come back and for a wee while you feel like you’ve lost a yard of pace. Suddenly it’s not as easy to get past people.
The older you get then the harder it is to get that back. But Martin is still a key player and if they get him firing on a consistent basis then the results will follow, I’m certain of it. Joe Newell is another who, if he could add some silverware, would be chapping at the door of that hall of fame. With Nectar Triantis suspended for Tannadice then the captain’s return is perfectly timed.
Joe is a very good footballer and in the Hibs wage bracket you won’t get much better. He is a leader as well, he never hides, even when he’s having a poor game or the team’s losing.
His return is a big boost for what is a massive game at Tannadice. Hibs need a win. They’re already seven points adrift of United and they need to start eating into that.
Win tomorrow and they’ll be edging towards the top six going into the first derby of the season. And we all know if they beat Hearts then every single member of the side will be legends at least for a week.