IT will take time for new Hibernian manager Lee Johnson to settle at Easter Road, implement his ideas and build a side which is capable of challenging for silverware.
The Englishman has only taken charge of seven competitive games since moving to this country and is still trying to integrate his summer signings – and no fewer than 13 players have been brought on board - into his starting line-up.
Yet, the prospect of taking on a Rangers team which reached the Europa League final last season and has won all three of their cinch Premiership games this term so early in his tenure is one which he finds exciting rather than daunting.
Johnson knows from personal experience that anything is possible in the league match in Leith this afternoon despite the fixture being a new experience for him and so many of his charges.
He made his debut for Kilmarnock against the Glasgow giants at Ibrox in the most difficult circumstances imaginable back in the February of 2012 – in the first game their hosts had played after being placed into administration.
The then Scottish champions’ concerned supporters flocked to Govan in their droves to show their support for their beloved club and created an intense and intimidating atmosphere for the visitors.
However, the midfielder still helped Kenny Shiels’ team to record a shock 1-0 triumph over Ally McCoist’s side and silence the 50,268-strong crowd.
“It was an unbelievable experience,” he said. “The second time I played against Rangers (he had faced them once during his spell at Hearts six years earlier) was the ‘show of unity’, after Rangers got put into administration.
“I vividly remember it being probably one of the loudest stadiums I’ve ever played in. Trying to tell your team mate 10 yards away to track a runner was nigh on impossible. But we won that game 1-0, with Dean Shiels scoring.
“You want big games as a player. I look back at those games now and I just want to play. The next best thing is coaching, but it’s definitely not as good as playing.”
Rangers faced PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of the Champions League play-off at Ibrox on Tuesday night – a match which Johnson travelled through to watch – and will take on their Dutch rivals in the rematch in the Netherlands on Wednesday night.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst may choose to rest key players ahead of that hugely important outing – but his opposite number is hoping that he fields the strongest side available to him against Hibs this afternoon as he believes it will be beneficial to his charges going forward.
“The focus for them will clearly be that second leg, without a shadow of a doubt,” he said. “But when you have a squad the size of Rangers and the depth the undoubtedly have I don’t think it will matter if there are changes.
“These are all good players and the manager can adapt, depending on how he sees us. So, it is going to be a strong side that we face. To be honest, I would rather any team play their best side. That’s my mentality. I want us to try to prove ourselves or test ourselves.
“I think this will be a big test for us, to see where we can finish. We want to finish as high up in the league as possible and the only way you will do that is by winning games like these, as well as your bread and butter games against those bottom-six type teams.”
Johnson added: “We have to build resilience. How do you build resilience? It’s experiences isn’t it? You can’t expect a 20-year-old from Portugal to come over and have the same resilience that you’ve got at your age with what you’ve been through in your life.
“They have to learn these lessons and then they have to come back stronger. They have to go through adversity and come through it.”
Matches between Hibs and Rangers have frequently been bad-tempered and fiercely-contested in recent seasons – and Johnson fully expects the latest league meeting between the Edinburgh and Glasgow sides to be no different.
“I’ve heard that,” he said. “All these are things I’m learning. I’m learning about these mini-rivalries that seem to be particularly hot in Scotland. You can understand it because everybody plays each other so much, distances aren’t far, there’s a lot of travelling supporters and there’s always incidents.
“My focus, personally, has to be on getting the team right. But the lads are always aware of all those side stories and they have to understand that, because it’s important for the supporters.”
Johnson is certainly hoping to see a response to the 2-1 defeat that Hibs suffered against Livingston away last weekend in their performance against Rangers.
“You have to be respectful of the opposition’s threat,” he said. “We would never not be diligent about the opposition.
“But it’s still about the lads’ attitude when they go out onto the pitch. I thought our attitude was poor in the first 30 minutes against Livingston. I thought it was excellent in the second-half and it was one mistake.
“So I’m looking for that attitude and personality in the performance no matter who we are playing against. I want everyone to say: ‘Yeah, that’s a Hibs team’.”
Martin Boyle, who scored a first-half hat-trick in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Hibernian at Hampden back in November, has only be used as a substitute since re-signing for the Easter Road club earlier this month.
But Johnson admitted the Australian internationalist could start today. “It’s possible,” he said. “It’s been a delicate balance to increase his fitness but maintain his freshness. It is that push and pull with him a little bit at the moment. Obviously, we want to get him in that starting line-up as quickly as possible.”
