Watch highlights of Hibernian's 2-1 defeat against St Mirren in the Scottish Premiership.

Jack Herrall
BBC Sport Scotland

Hibernian head coach David Gray "fully believes" he can turn around the club’s miserable run as St Mirren condemned them to their seventh consecutive Scottish Premiership match without a win to leave them bottom of the division.

Conor McMenamin scored a first-half double, with both strikes preceding a chorus of boos, with similar to follow at the interval and full-time as the discontent ramped up at Easter Road.

Martin Boyle's weak penalty was saved by Ellery Balcombe in the second half as Hibs passed up a golden opportunity to find a way back into the game and St Mirren saw out a comfortable win to move up into the top six.

An injury-time Nicky Cadden penalty was little more than a consolation, despite the midfielder finding the net again at the death, only for it to be ruled out after his struck shot struck the offside Dwight Gayle.

"I don't think the word fear is right," Gray said when asked if he has any trepidation about his position.

"I fully understand the question and I'm justified in being asked it because of the situation we find ourselves in. The position we are in the league is unacceptable.

"I've said that now for a number of weeks. There have been many excuses we could have used but today there's no excuses from me for the first-half performance."

Pressure has been mounting on Gray for some time, with his side now on a run of one win in 12. And that intensified when St Mirren took the lead

McMenamin ghosted in at the front post for his first goal, meeting a smart Scott Tanser cross, and seemed to wrong-foot Hibs keeper Josef Bursik for the second.

The stopper fell to his right and McMenamin’s strike was driven in low to the left, nicking off the keeper on the way in.

The maligned Elie Youan tried his best to be a nuisance to St Mirren’s central defenders, twisting and turning on the edge of the area before rattling a strike off of the post.

Despite a triple change at the interval, Hibs were unable to fight their way back into the game.

Boyle's penalty was struck low to the left but not near enough to the corner, with Balcombe able to get down and smother it.

St Mirren didn't attack in the second half with as much threat as the first period, and Cadden's late spot-kick almost kick-started a sensational comeback.

His strike moments later beat the stretching Balcombe but Gayle was clearly offside, meaning the effort was predictably ruled out after a VAR check.

Hibs unable to arrest alarming slump

It is difficult to see a route back into the good graces of the Hibs faithful for this group of players.

They have failed to win any of their last 23 matches when conceding first in the Scottish Premiership, further evidence of the supposed soft underbelly of the side.

On their day, Hibs' attacking options can be dynamic and effective but with Mykola Kuharevich suspended, they suffered from a lack of a recognised number nine, with Youan unable to lead the line and often dropping too deep.

At the back, they often seemed ponderous and careless on the ball, with a misplaced Marvin Ekpiteta pass in the first half summing up their season as it trundled out of play despite the defender being under no pressure.

Teams on poor runs often welcome international breaks as a chance to regroup, but it's hard to see this side climbing out of the hole they have dug for themselves.

St Mirren seem more like their usual selves

St Mirren's performance will be overshadowed by Hibs' poor display, but that’s not fair to Robinson’s side.

McMenamin was a threat throughout, with the whole side’s press causing the home side all sorts of problems.

Organised, together and dangerous, they were everything Hibs were not, and despite some poor patches of form they are now looking more like the side of last season.

The Paisley side are able to start games fast too, scoring 11 first-half goals in 13 games, with only Celtic having scored more in the Premiership this season.

What they said

Gray 'fully believes' he can turn form around

Hibernian head coach David Gray: "First half performance, totally unacceptable. I think I need to apologise to the fans because of the situation we find ourselves in.

"The need for points and the need for wins… to offer that up is just not good enough.

"You need to give credit to St Mirren as well. They started on the front foot but I thought we started really poorly."

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson: "I thought first half we were absolutely terrific. We were really aggressive with our press.

"We were quietly confident [Hibs' second] goal would be disallowed because we'd seen the replay [and] he was right in front of the goalkeeper, but you never know.

"So thankfully, we had a little bit of luck on our side for the first time in a long time, and I thought we thoroughly deserved our victory."

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