Paul Hanlon: '5-1 hurts Hibees as badly as 7-0 does for Hearts fans'

Paul Hanlon is still hurting after Hibs' capitulation in the Scottish Cup final© SNS Group

Paul Hanlon admits Hibs’ crushing 5-1 cup final defeat to Hearts will hurt fans every bit as much as their famous 7-0 victory did to the other side of the capital.

The young defender said he still has not got over the Hampden humbling as the Easter Road men were soundly beaten by their capital rivals.

Hibees have used the team’s 1973 New Year’s Day destruction of Hearts as a stick to beat their rivals with for decades but Hanlon said the green and white half of the city will have to deal with the ribbing now.

He told The Sun: “The 7-0 game still hurts the Hearts fans and I’m sure this has hurt Hibees just as much.

“Obviously every time we play Hearts we’re going to be reminded of it. But it’s just something we’ll have to deal with. You get disappointments and it’s all about how you come back from it.

“It’s going to be so hard all summer thinking about the cup final. I wouldn’t say I was fully over it. I don’t know really what went wrong but too many people on the day didn’t turn up.

“It hurt everyone. All the fans deserved better. They paid a lot of money to go and we let them down. It was either going to be the best day of your life or the worst and it went the wrong way for us.

“It’s something we’ve got to live with now.”

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