Anthony Stokes fired back at his critics by scoring the goals that earned Hibs a Scottish Cup semi-final place against Dundee United at the expense of Inverness Caley Thistle.
The on-loan Celtic striker and Jason Cummings took the bulk of the blame after Hibs lost the League Cup Final to Ross County on the back of a three match losing run that has virtually ended their hopes of automatic promotion to the Premiership.
Stokes has never had to look far for criticism and relished last night’s double against his old mentor John Hughes.
“I am used to the doubters in Scotland, you go seven or eight games without scoring and your football career is over!” he laughed.
“But I never doubt myself, in the last three or four games I could have had five goals. As a striker you go through spells like this, I have always seemed to have them in my career.
“I have gone seven or eight games without scoring here and there but you just have to keep your head up and keep doing the right things and believing the goals will come.
“Criticism doesn’t bother me. What’s been said is in the past now. It’s a massive win for us after the weekend we wanted to bounce back and show our heads haven’t gone.
“It was a difficult game. Having played with big John Hughes, that’s not the way he usually sets up his team.
“They tried to bully us but we dealt with everything and we had plenty of chances to kill the game off.
“We didn’t take them, but what we did do was dig in and show we have the character to bounce back after the weekend.
“We missed out on a medal at Hampden and I was very disappointed about that. Hopefully we’ve put a few things right here and we can finish the season strongly.”
Stokes scored in the 36th and 41st minutes to earn Hibs a semi-final tie against Dundee United on April 16 despite a late goal for the homeside by Iain Vigurs.
