To be
honest, a victory over the current Ross
County
Still,
Hibernian will welcome anything remotely positive right now. If the second half of last season was a
nightmare, then they still haven’t woken up yet; six games into the
Championship season, they have managed only two wins and six points. They’ve lost to the likes of part-timers Alloa,
Their victories came against Cowdenbeath thanks to two late goals, and Livingston , where the decisive goal was a punt by
goalkeeper Mark Oxley.
When folk
talked about the playoffs being the absolute minimum that the Hibees should aim
for, they were talking about the promotion
playoffs; at the moment they are seventh in the table, only a point above the relegation playoff place. The two other ‘big guns’ in the division,
Hearts and Rangers, are miles ahead of them already. While it’s not entirely unexpected that Hibs
trail both their local rivals, who have augmented their promising young squad
with some more experience or quality, and a Rangers side which still boasts the
second highest wage bill in the country, the fact that they sit below Raith
Rovers, Queen of the South, Livingston and Alloa is rather galling.
Add in the
loss of star striker Farid El Alagui to a shredded achilles tendon, and it’s
clear that rookie boss Alan Stubbs does not have his problems to seek. Even at this early stage, there are concerns
that he isn’t up to the job.
And one can
understand that. It’s clear that Stubbs’
predecessor, Terry Butcher, shattered team spirit around Easter Road. Whilst there was an almighty summer clearout,
the club held on to a number of players who have previously demonstrated competence
at top flight level – Paul Hanlon, Liam Craig, Alex Harris and Sam Stanton are
examples. But performances have been
generally dreadful, and the lack of confidence and heart seems to have been
carried over from May. In attack, even
before El Alagui got crocked, there seemed to be a lack of a plan, a paucity of
creativity. In last weekend’s defeat to
Queen of the South, they looked utterly bereft of ideas after conceding an
early goal.
In some
ways, it is reminiscent of the worst Rangers performances of the last two
years, with the apparent assumption that the ability of the players will shine
through against inferior opponents regardless.
But good as some of the Hibs players are, none of them are the equals
of, say, Kris Boyd or Nicky Law. Perhaps
the mooted move for Leigh Griffiths would make the difference, but a reliance
on short-term fixes like this are what got the club into this mess in the first
place.
And yet,
the situation is not actually all that grim.
The win in Dingwall might have heralded a new dawn, as it marked the
deployment of a back three for the first time.
Stubbs used experienced central defender Liam Fontaine in that position
with great success, shoring up the backline far better than in previous weeks. The performance of goalscorer Dominique
Malonga was hugely reassuring, especially given veteran Paul Heffernan’s steep
decline.
And, as I
stated above, it always seemed pretty likely that Hearts and Rangers would be
the top two sides in the league (though not necessarily in that order). The playoff system means that finishing third
or fourth in the table is really much of a muchness. If Stubbs can haul this bunch into even
fourth place, then all they need is to find some proper form in the six games
that follow, and they’ll go up after all.
Easy as
that, huh? Of course it isn’t, but it’s
a reflection of how the new management (both at squad and board level) still
have plenty of time to focus on sorting things out for the long term. A return for Griffiths
So Hibs’
situation is far from bleak. There’s
plenty of time for a turnaround yet.
That said, they have a trip to Rangers on Monday night to look forward
to. It may yet get a bit worse before it
gets better.
L.
No comments:
Post a Comment