David Gray praises Hibernian’s Rocky Bushiri after late winner against Ayr

David Gray heaped praise on Rocky Bushiri after the defender grabbed a late winner to send Hibernian into the last eight of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup.

An engrossing encounter between the form side in the Premiership and the Championship leaders looked set for extra time before Bushiri netted with a superb diving header in the 87th minute to seal a 1-0 win.

The Congo international has made a huge impact since breaking into the Hibs starting XI in November.

He has scored late levellers against Aberdeen and Rangers prior to notching the clincher against the Honest Men.

“I can’t praise him enough, he’s done it numerous times now since taking his opportunity coming back into the team,” Gray said.

“When you think back to how his season has went, he hasn’t had the amount of minutes he would have liked – but his level of professionalism and his attitude every day in training has been a credit to himself.

“He’s popped up with a couple of big goals now and he fully deserves it.”

The Easter Road boss was thrilled as his team found a way to get over the line in a fiercely-fought contest.

Hibs are now 11 games without defeat in all competitions, a run that has helped them into the top half of the Premiership table and contention for a European place.

Gray believes that the character shown, particularly in final stages of the game, was a perfect example of the spirit within his squad.

“I said to the players before the game that a lot had been said about a potential upset,” he added.

“Our character and mentality has been questioned a lot this season, especially when we faced adversity at the start of the season.

“There was a lot of questions asked but I think that numerous times this season we have come up with the goods – that shows the character and mentality is really strong.

“It’s great to be in the next round, there’s obviously a lot of ties to be played over the weekend.

“As far as we’re concerned, we’ll look forward to the draw and take it from there.

Ayr boss Scott Brown was proud of his side’s effort as they came agonisingly close to forcing extra time.

Marco Rus and Jamie Murphy both had efforts brilliantly saved in the dying stages as the Honest Men searched for an equaliser.

United will now turn their focus back to their Championship title bid, with a trip to promotion rivals Falkirk up next.

Brown said: “We’re obviously disappointed to lose a late goal.

“The lads played really well, in the second half especially. We came more and more into the game the longer it went against a top-quality team.

“We’re obviously disappointed to lose a late goal. It shows you where we’ve got to over the last year, we’re a happy team at the moment and are in a great place.

“We go again next Saturday against another quality team in Falkirk, we’ll need to have the same quality and energy levels.”