Hibs will not lie down for Celtic, no matter what fans say – Joe Newell

Captain Joe Newell emphatically dismissed any notion that Hibernian may go along with the wishes of some of their supporters to “lie down” to Celtic at Easter Road on Sunday.

Hibs find themselves in a somewhat awkward predicament as a draw or a victory against the second-placed Hoops would bolster the chances of their bitter Edinburgh rivals Hearts landing the Scottish Premiership title for the first time since 1960.

Fans of the Hibees cannot bear such a prospect, with many urging their team to take it easy on Sunday, even though they still need points in their own quest to secure a European spot for next season.

“I completely get it,” said skipper Newell, well aware of the intense rivalry between the two Edinburgh clubs after seven seasons at Easter Road.

“Obviously, the fact that we’re having the conversation shows that there’s obviously feelings like that, but you can only control what you can control.

“We’re a group of professional athletes. We fight with each other over five-a-sides in training, so if you think we’re going to lie down in front of thousands of people, in front of the Sky cameras, you’re wrong.

“We’ll be doing our utmost to win the game of football, it’s as simple as that.

“Obviously, you see and hear things (from supporters), but the message throughout is obvious. Straight away, I can assure you there’s no thinking of that.

“You play for this club, you’re expected to do as well as you can. We’ve got our own targets that we haven’t achieved yet and we need to, so in that respect, it’s straightforward.”

Manager David Gray scoffed at any suggestion that he is in a difficult situation because his team’s desire to win the match is clearly at odds with the sentiments of some of the fanbase.

“Honestly, it’s easy to say, it doesn’t make it awkward for me at all,” he said. “I get employed by this football club to win as many games as I possibly can and to try and improve every single player in the building and that is my focus every single game we go into.

“We can’t be looking elsewhere, you can only control what you control and that is our level of performance. Because of the rivalry, I fully understand the noise around the game but from us, we’re professional, we get paid to win games of football.

“The football club has got ambitions to finish in Europe, that is still a strong possibility for us and we need to do everything we can for the next four games. And that will be at full pelt between now and the end of the season.

“Whatever’s going on elsewhere, we can’t control, we just need to be fully focused on ourselves.”

Gray was coy on whether key midfielder Josh Mulligan, who is back in full training after being sidelined since January, could be involved on Sunday. “We’ll see how it goes,” he said.