Hibs defender Warren O’Hora loved running around with his Celtic top on as a kid – but knows he’ll be busy chasing them this afternoon.
The Dubliner was brought up in a Celtic-supporting family and has fond memories of watching Scott Brown lift trophy after trophy on the box when the midfielder was in his pomp. Running out at Parkhead in August’s Premier Sports Cup clash was a dream come true for the 25-year-old. But after that game ended in defeat O’Hora would love to get one over on his boyhood heroes when they meet again in Glasgow on Saturday.
He said: “For me personally, it was amazing to walk out and play in such a big stadium, such a big club. The atmosphere there is amazing and it can probably be quite intimidating but we’re all footballers. Coming from Dublin, coming from Ireland, there’s definitely a few fans and a few jerseys going through the family somewhere, and probably on myself when I was a kid.
“Who’d have been the guys I watched when I was younger? Scott Brown and players like that. I’m not too old, believe me! I’m only 25. It wouldn’t have been too long ago. But look, I’ll be going into this game trying to take all three points back with us.
“We can sit down and talk about them all day, we respect them for where they are in the league. We respect them for that, definitely. But I’m sure if we turn up and play to the best of our abilities, we’ll be just fine.”
The Premier Sports Cup last-16 defeat was a run of back-to-back games against the Bhoys with David Gray’s side also falling to a league loss just seven days earlier. Hibs lost early goals on both occasions and O’Hora insists Hibs’ mental resilience is just as important as ability on the ball if they are to upset the league leaders.
He added: “They score a lot of goals early on in games because of how quick and intense they start. We have to be ready for that. That’s the biggest part when you play a team of Celtic’s calibre, it’s all about mentally.
“There is no doubt about it they work you physically and it’s your brain that tends to try to go first and try to get to it first and get tired first. Against a team like Celtic, once that happens, you can be in trouble. The staff have reiterated that. There’s no time to switch off in a game like this, so we’ll be fully focused for hopefully 90-plus minutes.”
But O’Hora admits Hibs are back feeling good about themselves after climbing off the basement with a 3-0 victory at Motherwell last week. He said: “The atmosphere’s been good and the win changes everybody’s mood and things like that.
“Look, we still have a lot of work to be doing and we know that. We’re not getting ahead of ourselves in that aspect but it was a good performance from us and we need to build on it.”