| It is hard to get over an injustice but Graham Stack is going to use today's game against St Mirren as therapy to ease his pain |
 Graham Stack was just a sick as the rest of the Irish fans who were screaming at the television on Wednesday night as their side was knocked out of the World Cup. The Hibs goalkeeper was stunned to see the referee allow Thierry Henry's handball against the Republic of Ireland to go unpunished and the resultant goal to stand. He hopes today's drive to take all three points off St Mirren will dull the pain. Stack is one a handful of Irish players in Hibs' first-team squad who were devastated by France's World Cup play-off victory, with striker Anthony Stokes actually in the Stade de France on Wednesday night. Former Under-21 international Stack said: "I was at home watching it on the sofa; threw the controller a few times and woke the kids up from shouting at that TV. If it was Robbie Keane, would we be talking about it? Of course we wouldn't be talking about it. Ireland would be in the World Cup and we'd all be down the pub drinking Guinness. But, unfortunately, that's not the case; we're all drowning our sorrows. I can't believe you get four linesmen in a Europa League game and you get a World Cup qualifier and you can't put the same refereeing strategy in place. Just bitter, really, bitter."
Hibs' other Irish contingent include Liam Miller - who missed his chance to be involved in the play-off game through injury - Patrick Cregg and Kurtis Byrne. Stack said: "Me, Pag, Kurtis Byrne, Stokesy, Miller - there's a few Irish here. I was disappointed for the likes of Stokesy and Liam Miller because I genuinely felt, with a good season here, they certainly would have been part of that squad."
Stack is keen to join the ranks of international players but knows the four months he has been involved at Easter Road is not enough to earn that accolade. After a career spent on the bench at most of his clubs, he is just enjoying an extended run of first-team football. The former Arsenal trainee said: "I've had eight clubs and I'm 28. I've gone out to play football because that's what I love doing. You work hard all week Monday to Friday and just to have that light at the end of the tunnel knowing that you're playing on Saturday in front of 10,000 to 25,000, it's nice to have that. Winning a game, the excitement after the game, you actually feel part of it. Before, I've been part of teams where we've had success and we've won leagues. It's just not quite the same if you don't feel as though you brought much to the table."
With his experience of several benches, Stack knows exactly how Yves Ma-Kalambay is feeling right now but insists the goalkeeping rivals are close colleagues. He said: "We get on great, we talk, we have a craic together in training, we work hard, we push each other hard.. I'm not here to be everyone's best mate; I'm here to be number one and that's where I'm going to stay." Hibs are sitting in third place in the SPL but have not won at St Mirren for 10 years but Stack said: "In the last 10 years, how many Hibs teams have been there with the form that we've been in?" |
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