Hibs wing-back Chris Cadden has revealed Ron Gordon went the extra mile behind the scenes to make sure both the players and their partners felt right at home.
The Leith side will pay tribute to their former owner in tonight’s visit of Rangers in what is their first home game since the American died last month. The match comes just 24 hours after Hibees staff and players attended an emotional memorial service alongside his family in Edinburgh.
In public, Hibs fans saw an enthusiastic and ambitious businessman but Cadden insists there was much more to Gordon. He said: “Ron just loved Hibs and wanted the boys to do well. At the player of the year do last year I was there with my partner Caitlin, he was there with his wife Kit and he must have had a million people to speak to. But he came over and sat with us and spoke to Caitlin for 20 minutes, asking what she did for a living and how she was enjoying Edinburgh.
“I know she really appreciated it as well and Kit did the exact same and I can only thank the both of them for that. They didn’t need to do that but it made us feel more comfortable and more at ease with Hibs because we were still relatively new. It was little things like that, he was such a good person.
“My overriding memory is Ron was just a good guy. Hopefully we can beat Rangers and pay a proper tribute to him.”
Hibs honoured Gordon in Saturday’s win at Livingston but Cadden knows this evening will be different in front of their own fans. He added: “It’s been an emotional couple of weeks. Saturday’s game we had a shirt with Gordon 68 on it in the dressing room and the 68 on the shorts and warm-up T-shirts as well.
“It was emotional then but it’s going to be emotional against Rangers, being the first home game after his passing but we just want to use that. I think it can feed into the fans and we can use that for the event and focus on ourselves, knowing that is what Ron would want us to do.”
Hibs are enjoying a rich vein of form ahead of tonight’s clash having won five in an unbeaten seven-game league run. Elie Youan has been a big factor, with the French forward scoring six goals in those outings. Cadden appreciates his quality as a team-mate and added: “I enjoy watching him. I saw someone say you’d pay money to watch him in training and you would!
“He just goes out and enjoys himself and has fun. When a player is as on-form as he is at the moment and as good as he is, you love to see it. He’s unpredictable but that’s good. He has so much in his locker, you don’t know what he’s going to do.”
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