Jake Doyle-Hayes admits he might have to book his fan club a return trip after 27 mates made the trek across the Irish Sea to inspire him to double his career goals tally.
The midfielder from County Cavan couldn’t have picked a better moment to net his best ever strike with his pals from the Emerald Isle in the stands to witness his gem against Ross County.
Having netted just twice in his previous 103 career games - and never for Hibs - the midfielder struck twice in the space of 28 second half minutes.
The first opened his account for Hibs at the 34th time of asking and raised eyebrows around Easter Road. His second - a stunning chest and volley effort from 25 yards - almost took the roof off the stands.
You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket and the midfielder hit the jackpot as Shaun Maloney ’s side won for the first time in six top flight fixtures.
The 2-0 victory thrusts the Hibees into the top four and cuts the gap on capital rivals Hearts to nine points.
And Doyle-Hayes insists the Easter Road side won’t give up on trying to catch the stuttering Jambos with 11 games remaining.
He said: “I don’t think it would be too hard to say they were the best goals of my career, I haven’t got that many!
“I genuinely don’t know where the goals came from.
“Sometimes I need to let it go and have a pop.
“After the first one every time I touched the ball the crowd were shouting for me to shoot - even when I was on the halfway line.
“That’s why I thought I would have a go with the second one and it wasn’t a bad finish.
“Thankfully it came off.
“People have said to me that I should have more shots on goal. It’s been friends, family and even some members of staff.
“I had my fiancee in the stand and 27 boys from Ireland over for the game. So it was good to score in front of all of them.
“They had some time off so they all wanted to come over and see me.
“If I score like that I might need to get them back next week!
“Can we close the gap on Hearts? We believe we can.
“We need to keep looking up the way but we won’t target one team, we just want to fish as high as we can.
“We know what it means to the fans and everyone connected to the club, so we are going to keep pushing as much as we can.”
With Celtic up next at Easter Road on Sunday it was the perfect time to get back to winning ways in the league as Hibs ended a miserable run that had brought no wins and five blanks in their last six league games.
Maloney’s honeymoon period was a distant memory with his side loitering in seventh ahead of kick-off and supporters frustrated with a powderpuff run in front of goal.
Doyle-Hayes said: “Before the game on Saturday we weren’t sitting in a great place in the table and as players we all knew that.
“We believe in what the gaffer wants us to do and we are taking everything on board. We know we are a talented squad and we can push on.
“It was crucial that we won the game.
“Could I feel the relief from the crowd after my first goal? Yeah.
“It was understandable they were getting nervous. We are at home and we need to make Easter Road a hard place to come to.
“In the last few weeks that hasn’t been the case.
“So we were delighted for the fans who came out to support us that we were able to give them the three points.
“It’s a massive game next Sunday. Celtic are a quality team with top players, so we know we need to stand up and fight for everything.”
