You would have required a heart of stone, or perhaps a Celtic scarf around your neck, not to have felt a pang of sympathy for poor Hibs goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw on Saturday as his dreams of cup glory came crashing down around him in the rain at Hampden.

He isn’t the first and he certainly won’t be the last stopper to wish the famous old turf would open up and swallow him whole to save him the glare of tens of thousands of guffawing opposition supporters, not to mention the television cameras dissecting every facet of a clanger that cost his side dear in one of the biggest games of their season.

But it is in times such as those that you discover what players are made of. Laidlaw knew at the time that he probably should have kept out Mikael Lustig’s opening goal for Celtic at Hampden, and that he certainly should have kept out the full-back’s second strike just before the interval that left his side with a mountain to climb.

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But with the help of a hugely creditable second half performance from the 25-year-old, all the more impressive given what had just gone before, it is one that they almost scaled before the quality of the champions saw them over the line.

That is why Hibs manager Neil Lennon, if he has any doubts over the ability of the former Raith Rovers man to handle the occasion of the first Edinburgh derby of the season tomorrow night, should dispel them and stick by his man.

Ofir Marciano, of course, is breathing down his neck to seize back those gloves, but on the evidence of his second half showing at Hampden, Laidlaw is more than up to the task.

“It just skidded through along the floor more quickly than I thought it would,” said Laidlaw after the match, as he was forced to relive the moment that probably kept him awake for most of Saturday night. “I didn’t really see it until it came to the back post and he’s hit it horribly. I just tried to get something on it, but I put it in the back of the net. Obviously, it’s really frustrating.

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“You’ve just got to [put it out of your mind]. Goalkeepers are going to make mistakes and I made one on Saturday. I have to move on from it.

“In the second half, I had to erase it from my memory. It’s in the back of your mind that I’ve done it, but I had to play the second half as if it didn’t happen.

“We’ll need to see what happens [for Tuesday night]. “It’s the manager’s decision. I’ve come in and I’ve done alright but I should have done better with their second goal, so we’ll see what the manager does.

“We came here to get a result and we didn’t, so that’s obviously disappointing.

“The way we lost the first two goals was really disappointing and I could have done better at the second goal. But we matched them for long spells in the game.

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“We did well after the break. We rallied round and the manager made a couple of changes at half time, so we had to do that. We got back into the game but gave away another cheap goal and their fourth goal came late in the game when we were trying to get back onto level terms.”

A period of self-examination inevitably follows defeats, particularly when you contribute to your own downfall. It won’t just be Laidlaw who may reflect on what he could have done differently though, with manager Lennon too perhaps regretting his choice of personnel that began the match, such was the impact of Martin Boyle and Steven Whittaker after their half-time introductions.

Still, the former Celtic boss was pleased by the showing of his men overall on the day.

“He said we’d played well but he’s disappointed we went out,” said Laidlaw. “We did really well in the second half and it looked as if they tired after their tough game during the week, but it’s frustrating that we went out and that’s the main thing.”

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The great thing about football, so the cliché goes, is that it always gives you a quick chance to get over such disappointments, with another game usually not far away. If that logic applies to the rest of the Hibs players, then surely it applies too to Laidlaw, no matter the gravity of that match.

In terms of his Hibs career, there is no doubt that another high-profile error against his club’s fiercest rivals would be damaging to his future as a number one at Easter Road, in the eyes of supporters at least.

But in goalkeeping terms, Laidlaw is still young, and judging by his response to adversity at the weekend, he is an individual who would relish the challenge tomorrow evening brings.

“That’s what you want - a chance to bounce back right away,” he said. “Hopefully we can get a result against Hearts.”