Hibs will have brighter days with Gray

THIS has been a memorable season for Edinburgh football, with Hearts deservedly gaining all of the plaudits for their valiant title challenge, yet it’s almost easy to forget that when the campaign began, Hibs were in the limelight, having done superbly well in the previous season and then performing heroics well above their station in the European qualifiers.

In David Gray, Hibernian has its best manager since Neil Lennon. The Hibees are hard to beat, they defend well, have finally found a decent goalie and have seven or eight wonderful players in their squad—the cream being Josh Mulligan, Jamie McGrath and Miguel Chaiwa. A few Hibs fans seem disillusioned with the manager, but it’s important that Hibs supporters don’t allow the temporary superiority of Hearts to cloud their judgement of Sir David. Hibernian’s recruitment seems light years ahead of the days of Monty, Heckingbottom and the other frauds who have sat in the Easter Road hotseat since 2019. At time of writing Hibs have a chance of European qualification in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 2000s and if half of their 12 draws had been wins, we’d have had a five-way title race this season.

A respectable League Cup exit to Celtic and a shock Scottish Cup defeat to Dunfermline, too many draws, three derby defeats and an inability to compete against Rangers have sullied the campaign this term, but if the Hibees can retain their best players and add more quality to the squad they’ll be challenging on all fronts next term. It’s probably time for Joe Newell and Chris Cadden to seek pastures new—Gray’s new Hibs needs better calibre players than them.

My own only real criticism of Hibs this season has been the lack of youth players getting through to the first team. If the youth players aren’t good enough to get a chance with the first team, something is seriously wrong at the Hibernian Training Centre. If that’s the case then what’s the point in HTC at all?

Hibs lost the important Edinburgh derby—the first match after the split—in somewhat farcical fashion, having goalie Salinger sent-off and then Felix Passlack also red-carded, playing most of the second-half with just nine men. They actually led 1-0 thanks to a Martin Boyle strike before the red-cards began and bravely battled on until eventually succumbing to Hearts’ brutal physicality and superior manpower, losing 2-1. That defeat, though, like the two narrow losses at Tynecastle, was not anyone’s fault—only unfavourable circumstance was to blame.

Next up, The Hibees lost 2-1 at home to Celtic, suffering another red-card, this time Jamie McGrath getting an early bath, Joe Newell getting on the scoresheet in a match that most Hibs fans were indifferent to, because of its importance to the title race.

The Hibees managed to keep their Euro dream alive by thumping Falkirk 3-1 at Grangemouth, leading 3-0 at the interval thanks to a double from Josh Campbell and one from Jordan Obita.

Still to come are a trip to Ibrox and a match against Motherwell. A win at Ibrox would be the perfect tonic for the Hibs faithful and would affirm one simple fact, despite social media chatter about teams ‘lying down,’ Hibernian have been highly professional in the post-split fixtures and have tried to win every match—because that’s what sport is all about.

This Hibby isn’t too fussed if Hearts win the league or not. A wee bit of revolution is good from time to time and it would delight my Jambo pals and cousins were Hearts to pull it off. On the other hand, if an Albert Kidd 2.0 situation were to occur instead, I, like every other Hibby, will be having a chuckle and I’d expect no less from Hearts fans were our current positions reversed. So, I’ll end this season’s columns by saying two things:

—Hearts, you’re our city rivals and in my youth I’d have done anything to see you not win anything, but now, after 45 years of watching none but two teams ever win the league in Scotland, something has to change, so, good luck to you and well done, you’ve done Edinburgh football proud, no matter how it ends.

—Celtic, your reputation as Scotland’s top dogs is at risk and you’ve the ear-drums and self-respect of every Hibby for a generation in your care now. As fellow children of the Irish diaspora our two clubs have had an at times torrid relationship over the decades, but please, whatever you do, just don’t mess this up!