The former Bohs and Shelbourne boss is relishing the prospect today’s cup final

MANY OF the club’s supporters might see victory over Hearts at Hampden Park this afternoon primarily as temporary release from the prison of Hibernian’s under-achieving past. Pat Fenlon, on the other hand, is hoping that by bringing the Scottish Cup back to Easter Road for the first time in 110 years, he can lay the foundations for a brighter future.

As a Dubliner who only took over at the club midway through this season, the former Bohemians and Shelbourne boss is relatively unburdened by the baggage the Edinburgh outfit bring into the game. As an enthusiast for the Scottish game, however, he was enough aware of it even before the locals began to fill him in.

“It’s something I haven’t witnessed before,” says the 43- year-old with a certain sense of wonder. “Everybody wants to talk about it. That’s all people want to talk about: the game. It’s very intense at the moment.”

And so he brought the squad back to Dublin for a few days this where they got to do a little work away from the media spotlight and he, of course, simply stepped out of one and into another.

He doesn’t seem to mind too much, even when it was put to him by an Irish reporter still clearly tickled by the yarn that Hibs had a Dubliner – Dan McMichael – in charge all those years ago when they last lifted this trophy. Fenlon replies that he was told the story the day he officially got the job and he has heard it quite a few times since. He shrugs it off but readily accepts its significance in the mythology of a club that, though it enjoyed far greater success during a brief, glorious spell in the late 40s and 50s, is almost defined in some people’s eyes by its remarkable run of failure in the cup.

“It’s a fixation to them [the fans],” he says with a characteristic grin. “Winning the cup is all that matters.”

And while the fact that it is bitter Edinburgh rivals Hearts they would have to beat to win clearly adds to the sense of urgency, it is only really a side issue.

“No, no, it could be anyone in the final,” he insists. “They see it as the fact they have Hearts in the final as an omen, a good omen. It’s peculiar situation to be in when we have supporters saying they will take going down, ‘just win us the cup’ because you know the financial in and and outs at the club, the consequences if that happened.”

The McMichael story, meanwhile, is more likely to resonate with Fenlon because he was also the club’s secretary, treasurer and physio at the time; a little like Fenlon’s own role juggling during the darker days at Shelbourne and Bohemians.

The Dubliner insists he never minded pitching when something needed to be done around Tolka or Dalymount but acknowledges how nice it is now to concentrate on the job he was appointed to do.

“It’s been great,” he says. “It’s completely different to what I’m used to. You find yourself sometimes standing on people’s toes because you think that’s what you should do because you’ve done it previously. But basically you just have to turn up and prepare for the game. It’s something I’m not used to and it’s taken a little bit of time to get used to that I suppose. I still haven’t gotten used to it. There are still little things I like to do myself which maybe other people want to do. That will take time.”

And by the team finishing second from bottom he has guaranteed himself some of that.

Between one thing and another, more than a dozen players will leave over the summer and victory today, along with the prospect of European football, would aid Fenlon in the task of filling the vacancies with players of his own choosing. Either way, it is at that stage, he contends, that people can really start to judge him for the impact he has made.

First up, though, he has the opportunity not just to finish this season on a high but to make a little history in what always would have been a special occasion for him.

“It’s great,” he says. “For me to lead out a team at Hampden is fantastic. I was more interested in Scottish football than English football so I know what it’s about, a Scottish Cup final, and I’ve been at a fair few of them. It’s a great occasion, I’m really looking forward to it and I intend to enjoy it, win lose or draw.”

He’d do well to keep that last bit from the fans.