Dobbie eyes Old firm double!

Stephen Dobbie
By Admin
January 8 2004

STEPHEN DOBBIE reckons Rangers fans have every right to be thrilled at seeing winger Chris Burke making the grade - but he believes Hibs supporters have even more cause to be excited given the number of teenage stars topping the bill at Easter Road.

The Hibs striker got a close-up view of 20-year-old Burke’s talents as they starred together for Rangers’ under-21 side, seeing enough to convince him it would only be a matter of time before he broke through into the first team.

But while delighted to see his old pal do so, Dobbie is firmly of the view that the excitement he brings to supporters can be multiplied six times over at Easter Road where more than half of Bobby Williamson’s sides are often aged 21 or under.

Such is the youth wearing green and white at the moment Dobbie has to pause for a moment, reflecting that, having newly turned 21, he’s beginning to sound like "an old boy" in discussing the merits of his younger team-mates.

For all the youthful exuberance currently being displayed by Hibs, however, Dobbie admits "Williamson’s Weans" rely heavily on the side’s more experienced players, something they’ll have to do again in Saturday’s Tennent’s Scottish Cup clash against his old club.

He said: "We have some great young players at the club like Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson and Steven Whittaker. Despite the fact they are all still teenagers they are picking up a lot of experience playing in the SPL every week.

"We have a lot of young boys bursting onto the scene but the older players in the side play a very important role in helping us along. They do so not only during matches but in training every day and there is so much we can learn from them."

Saturday’s match, of course, gives Hibs the chance to complete an "Old Firm double" having already knocked Celtic out of the CIS Cup to set up a semi-final showdown with Rangers early next month.

But while many see Alex McLeish’s team being vulnerable following their 3-0 defeat by Celtic last weekend, that result leaving them trailing Martin O’Neill’s side by 11 points and leaving the Rangers boss to admit their arch-rivals can only throw the SPL title away, Dobbie warned the Ibrox outfit should still be regarded as highly dangerous opponents.

And he insisted he shouldn’t be counted among those who believe the SPL title race is already over.

He said: "Having been at Ibrox I know they’ll have taken the defeat by Celtic really hard. But I’m also sure they’ll be coming to Easter Road determined not only to win but to do so by scoring a few goals.

"They might still be missing the likes of Ronald de Boer but they are still a strong team with a lot of good players. We beat Celtic in the quarter-final of the CIS Cup and that shows it is possible for other teams to also beat them so I don’t think you can say the title race is over although, obviously, it will be hard for Rangers to make up that sort of ground.

"However, we can’t afford to worry about how they are thinking. We have to concentrate on our own game and hope we can put on good enough a show to win the match.

"It would be great to complete the double over the Old Firm in the Cups but while we are obviously desperate to beat Rangers we still have a lot to play for this season on other fronts, we are just two points off fifth place in the league and we have the semi-final of the CIS Cup to look forward to.

"We’ll prepare for this game the way we do for any match because we want to win them all. I’ve always said I believe we are good enough to be in the top three or four and the one thing is that every SPL team is capable of beating any other in a one-off situation."

And Dobbie believes a big Hibs support can play their part in the outcome of Saturday’s match - just as they did in the CIS Cup triumph over Celtic.

He said: "I’m sure we’ll get the same great atmosphere with the Hibs fans out in force. They’ve already seen us beat Celtic at Easter Road and they’ll be thinking there’s no reason why we can’t do the same to Rangers."

Dobbie took his goal tally for the season to five with Hibs second in their 3-2 win over Partick Thistle last weekend, three of his goals having come in the 9-0 hammering of Montrose in the CIS Cup, and he admitted he’d love to complete the feat of scoring in all three competitions this season with another against Rangers.

But he added: "Every striker loves to score goals but the main thing is the team winning. If we do that I’d be delighted and if doing so I could score a goal then I’d doubly delighted."