Hibs manager Colin Calderwood faces the challenge of playing Celtic twice in four days this week and is excited by the prospect albeit a formidable one. Celtic head to Easter Road for the Scottish Communities League Cup quarter-final tomorrow night before hosting the same side on Saturday in the league, where they lead the opposition by 10 points. Hibs finally won a game away from home, against St Mirren, last weekend while Celtic beat Aberdeen 2-1. This, on top of their fight back against Kilmarnock the previous weekend, shows that Celtic are digging themselves out of their slight dip. This sets the cup game up nicely.
Calderwood said: "It's a terrific week we've got ahead of us. It doesn't come any more exciting. Where they (Celtic) were going into the second half against Kilmarnock to where they are now, they're on the up. I think their personnel is still good. They're a good team. I don't think it's any easier because you perceive it that they're having a bit of a struggle. I don't. The level of game is always going to be a hard one for any team playing against the Old Firm. We can hope and have a willingness to try to cause another unpredictable result and we look forward to that. We've got to get into a situation where we hopefully can make them feel a little bit more uncomfortable than we have in the previous games we've had with them. We have to press the ball and try and get the strengths of our team in the right areas."
A win over on Wednesday would take Hibs into the League Cup semi-finals and one step closer to reclaiming the trophy they last won in 2007. Asked whether he would prefer to win the cup or league game, Calderwood said: "You'd obviously win the league match, because you can draw and go through (in the cup, on penalties). The desires are exactly the same. We've got a chance of winning a quarter-final and we'll try and take it."
Two goal hero Leigh Griffiths is on top form for the home side on Saturday and Calderwood was happy with the overall performance of the striker. There are just another couple of months left on Griffiths loan deal from Wolves and Calderwood hinted he would be keen to retain the front man in the second half of the season. Calderwood said: "We've got to talk to Wolves at the time. We're in contact with them just to keep them up to date with how Leigh's doing and it's something we've got to broach."
On-loan Celtic defender Richie Towell will be unavailable for Wednesday's game under the conditions of the loan and Mark Brown is set to start in goal, continuing in the League Cup in place of first choice Graham Stack.