Jefferies lays it on the line

Jefferies stressed how rare it is for one of the Old Firm to not make it to Hampden and wants his team to make the most of the fact that they will not have to beat either Rangers or Celtic to lift the cup. Instead it is Hibs who stand between Kilmarnock and glory, and given how evenly matched the two are, Jefferies is predicting a close but open final. He said: "I have stressed to the players that you won't get many chances to win silverware, especially when you don't have to play Rangers or Celtic in the final, because normally one of the Old Firm make it that far. "This is possibly our best chance ever and the two teams going into this game are sitting level on points in the SPL. "In the three games we have played so far this season, we have both had a win and the other match was a draw. "So it is all set up for a good game between two teams who like to attack and will have a go at each other. "The only thing that could stop it being a great final is players freezing on the big occasion, but hopefully that doesn't happen and we are all able to watch a wonderful match". Kilmarnock will take 18,000 fans through to Hampden for their first final since losing 3-0 to Celtic in the CIS Insurance Cup in 2001. That is in stark contrast to the meagre 6,950 average gate at Rugby Park for Scottish Premier League matches this season. Jefferies is hoping for both a good game and a Kilmarnock victory in order to persuade some of those supporters who will be at Hampden to start watching their team's home matches regularly. He said: "The spin-off for us is that if we can get a couple of thousand from the 18,000 who will be at the final attending our home games every other week then that would make an absolutely huge difference. "That could allow us to guarantee survival, because each year we have been successful it has not been so we can go out and buy players, rather it is so we don't have to make major cuts as we did in my first two or three seasons here".