Morais senses peril at Morton

FILIPE MORAIS knows better than most the potential pitfalls awaiting Hibs in tonight's Co-operative Insurance Cup clash with First Division Morton.

Having been part of the St Johnstone side which gave the Easter Road outfit a massive scare in the semi-finals two years ago, Morais predicted that tonight's opponents will similarly be out to prove a point. Although Hibs went on to lift the trophy, Saints forced the Tynecastle semi-final into extra-time before goals from David Murphy and Abdessalam Benjelloun dashed their dream of glory.

Now Morais expects the Morton players to arrive at Easter Road with the same high hopes, saying: "I remember preparing to play Hibs that night and all I really wanted to do was make an impression.

"I really wanted to prove I could play at SPL level by playing well against Hibs and while St Johnstone were finally beaten they nearly did it."

Morais' dream was realised when then-Hibs boss John Collins, impressed by his displays for Saints and not least by his semi-final performance, brought the Portuguese under-21 midfielder to Easter Road.

He said: "I really wanted to make an impact against Hibs, to catch someone's eye and thankfully it was that of John Collins.

"I'm sure it will be the same for the Morton players tonight, they'll want to make an impression, give a good account of themselves and prove to whoever may be watching that they can step up a level.

"So we are under no illusions that it is going to be a very tough match, that we are not simply going to walk all over them."

However, Morais insisted that if Mixu Paatelainen's side continue to create the large number of chances they've made in their opening three SPL matches they'll emerge from the match with their hopes of going all the way to Hampden once again intact.

Four points from matches against Kilmarnock, Falkirk and Inverness Caledonian Thistle was, the former Chelsea youth player admitted, a poor return for his team-mates' efforts, but he firmly believes there's much more to come.

He said: "It could have been better, but it's not a disaster. We were all really disappointed to lose a goal right at the end against Killie on the first day of the season and we felt we should definitely have beaten Inverness.

"But here we are just three games into the season and not one of the 12 SPL clubs can boast a 100 per cent record.

"You'd expect a couple of teams to have won all three games so far but it just shows you that every team is capable of beating the others.

"It's a matter of getting a bit of consistency going and putting our chances away.

"We've created a lot of openings in our games so far and, fingers crossed, someone is going to take a bit of a doing from us if we continue to do so."

Hibs, of course, travelled to the Caledonian Stadium well aware of the focus being on their "Highland hoodoo," the Edinburgh club having failed to score on any of their five previous visits.

Morais, though, insisted there had been no talk of a jinx and revealed he believed Paatelainen's players could still go on to win even when Don Cowie fired Caley into a first-half lead.

He said: "The word hoodoo never entered our minds, we felt we could go there and win. Afterwards we believed we deserved to have done so and were unlucky not to win.

"I didn't think for a minute we were going to lose. We were playing well, creating chances and we knew if we kept it going a goal would come, that's the confidence the manger has instilled in us.

"Obviously we'd rather have been heading back home with all three points but we felt we were more than a bit unlucky at the end of the day.

"We made a lot of chances but, unfortunately, we were unable to take more than one. But you have to be there to miss them and I'm sure everything will soon fall into place."

Colin Nish claimed his third goal in two games as he earned Hibs a point but Morais insisted the Easter Road side shouldn't simply be dependant on the former Kilmarnock hitman and his fellow striker Steven Fletcher for goals.

He said: "As disappointed as we were not to win, making so many chances was pleasing as was the fact that the openings we had didn't just fall to the strikers.

"The manager is always on at the midfielders to push on, to drive forward and the way we play guys like John Rankin, Dean Shiels and myself are going to get chances to score. You saw it early on when John and Fletch exchanged passes at the edge of the Caley penalty area only for John to put his shot wide, but that was a prime example of the way we like to play. I had a chance myself and fluffed it which was disappointing as I've put in a lot of effort in training, working to make my shooting better."

Much has been made of Paatelainen's desire to see Hibs play a more direct style of football but the subtle change, Morais insisted, didn't mean a switch to simply hoofing the ball long.

He said: "If there is a long diagonal run being made and you have the chance to deliver that pass then why not play it?

"But it's not back-to-front football, it's all designed to get the ball to our strikers a bit more quickly, not just lumping it forward.

"As a former striker himself the manager knows what they want, the ball up to them quickly and the midfield pushing up in support when we can get third-man runs going which puts the pressure on the opposition.

" It's hard work for them (the opposition] to match the runs and someone is bound to fail to match a run as happened when John burst forward to play that one-two with Fletch.

"Tonight we'll have to show the same appetite for working hard which I am sure we will do. It will be hard, Morton will try to frustrate us and make it tough but I'm certain we can start what, hopefully, will be a good run in the competition."