Hibernian

We asked for your views on Hibernian's 2-1 defeat against St Mirren.

There were a lot of responses, here's what some of you said:

Malcolm: We are a team lacking belief, confidence and now desire. This is a rookie manager having no romance with his fate in this league. Played 12, won once and rooted at the bottom. Even the best manager would struggle to get us out of this now!

Ross: Worst performance of the season by far. Having the creative force of Dylan Levitt and Nicky Cadden in the second half improved things. Not deserved but unlucky not to sneak a point. Hopefully David Gray now realises three defensive midfielders won't work. He needs time, not pressure to get us back on track.

Scott: That first half was the worst 45 minutes I have ever witnessed at Easter Road, an absolutely feeble attempt to win a game of football.

Allan: Worst performance of the season and by some margin. Too many players didn’t turn up on a day that Gray needed them. That said, still some strange decision making from Gray in terms of personnel. We’re too defensive and it’s costing us. Levitt is the only player who knows how to take a forward first touch, move the ball quickly and offensively.

Les: Worst display of the season, Malky Mackay and Gray have to go. Defence are clueless, midfield soft and forwards misfiring. It needs to change very quickly or we are going to be relegated. Not one player looked up for it in first half, Levitt made a difference but the rest were useless with even simple passes over hit or misplaced.

George: Very poor first half. Changes made at half time were positive and we played better in the second half. If Martin Boyle had put away the penalty, who knows? But, where do we go from here? Reset and go again next week? Keep the changes and see if they can perform? Good Luck David, you're going to need it.

Mark: What a mess. I feel sorry for Gray, but he should never have been given the job without proving himself at another club first. As for those in charge at the club - bad appointment after bad appointment, an awful signing policy, mass overspending, the list goes on. The next manager HAS to be a solid, proven type like McInnes, or we are going down.

Rob: Groundhog Day. How do you stop this rot? Back to basics, aggression, competitiveness and big hearts. None of that on show week in, week out. That is one of the things hurting us most as fans and particularly season ticket holders who shell out thousands each year to witness no fight or desire. Who has pride to play for the club? Owners need to go.

Brian McLauchlin
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

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David Gray "doesn't deserve this" pressure or performance Hibs inflicted yesterday, according to Nicky Cadden.

Hibs fell to yet another defeat in the Scottish Premiership against St Mirren on Saturday, though Cadden thought he had nicked a point with a late double, though his second was ruled out after striking the arm of the offside Dwight Gayle.

"I'm not to sure [how to explain the performance] if I'm honest," he told BBC Scotland.

"It's simply not good enough. We find ourselves in a position and need to regroup and take it to the next game and hopefully we can change it.

"He doesn't deserve this. Since I came here to the club he has been really good with me. He is really good guy and a good person.

"I don't know and can't explain the form. He certainly doesn't deserve this or that performance.

"We just need to stick together and be together as a team and try to get out of this rut. Ultimately, we need to put in better performances as we know it's not good enough. We need to scrap for three points, fight for three points.

"It's hard to win a game of football so we need to try and change it show and this gaffer we want to play for his football club.”

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• Hibernian have scored five goals via substitutes in the Premiership this season, only Aberdeen (six) have scored more.

• Hibernian attempted 502 passes in this game, their highest total in a single match in the Premiership this season.

• Hibernian have scored in their last six Premiership home games.

• St Mirren have conceded two penalties in the Premiership this season, only Kilmarnock (three) and Hearts (three) have conceded more.

Hibernian head coach David Gray tells BBC Scotland: "First half performance, totally unacceptable. I think I need to apologise to the fans for the first-half performance 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.

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

On if he fears being sacked, given Hibs' track record for letting managers go…

“I don't think the word fear is right. 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 for this football club to be where we are is not good enough, it's unacceptable.

“I've said that now for a number of weeks, I've been very positive about the improvements within it and there have been many excuses we could have used in recent weeks but today there's certainly no excuses from me in the first half performance.

We need to keep working harder, we need to stick together. And the message to the fans is an apology for the first-half performance, but I do believe we will turn this around. I think the second half was better, we finished the game better, but there's a lot of hard work still to be done, that's for sure."

On if he’s the man to turn it around for Hibs…

“I fully believe that, yes,” he adds.

Hibernian’s miserable run continues 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.

Let us know your views on the game., external

Jack Herrall
BBC Sport Scotland

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

Hibs 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, something Gray has been quizzed on before.

On their day, the attacking options can be dynamic and effective but with Mykola Kuharevich absent today 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 unalert on the ball with a misplaced Marvin Ekpiteta pass in the first half summing up their season — never mind their afternoon — as it trundled out of play despite the defender under no pressure.

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

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Hibernian: Bursik, C. Cadden, Ekpiteta, O'Hora, Obita, Kwon, Newell, Triantis, Boyle, Youan, Hoilett.

Substitutes: Smith, Miller, Levitt, Doyle-Hayes, Iredale, McKirdy, N. Cadden, Bushiri, Gayle.

St Mirren: Balcombe, Fraser, Gogic, Taylor, Bwomono, Tanser, Phililips, O'Hara, Kiltie, McMenamin, Olusanya.

Substitutes: Urminsky, Kenny, Penman, Smythm Adeniran, Scott, Mooney, Ayunga, Mandron.

Follow the action live.

Hibs striker Mykola Kuharevich is suspended while Lewis Miller is doubtful with an ankle injury but Dwight Gayle and Chris Cadden are set to return. Kieron Bowie (hamstring) is still absent.

St Mirren defender Charles Dunne has been ruled out for eight weeks with a hamstring tendon injury. A similar problem is keeping Alex Iacovitti on the sidelines.

Midfielder Caolan Boyd-Munce is a doubt, Jaden Brown is still unavailable and Kevin van Veen's loan was cancelled this week.

Brian McLauchlin
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

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Hibs captain Joe Newell admits there is a fear factor in the team when they get to the later stages of games.

The Easter Road club have conceded nine league goals after the 75th minute and sit bottom of the Premiership table.

"You would be lying to say there isn't [fear], because you can feel it in the stadium and stuff. I think thats just completely natural given the position we are in," said midfielder Newell.

"Everyone - fans, players - is desperate to get a win and if it's 1-0 in the 85th minute there is going to be some anxiety around the place.

"We have worked on some things to deal with it and the last couple of games we have coped with it much better. It's not just as simple as that though. We need to be scoring more and be more clinical to ease that pressure if it does come.

"The hard work has been continuous and I have so much faith in that group and the team. I firmly believe in a couple of months' time we will be looking back and saying that was a terrible start but look where we are now."

Newell insists the players need to do more for rookie manager David Gray, who is under increasing pressure as Hibs' poor form continues.

As he prepares for Saturday's visit of St Mirren, Newell said: "He will always be honest and true. He will never shy away from it.

"As the captain and a group of players, we have to do so much more for him. He deserves so much more from us. We are not doing enough for him.

"He sets us up for the last game, for example, and we had a real good performance, tactically we were good but just not clinical enough in the final third. That just shows the manager sets us up in the right way and bar a late call it should be three points.

"Throughout the season we have had red cards. He can't do anything about me lunging in with five minutes to go and getting sent off. Of course we all feel for him and are desperate to turn it around for him especially."

Brian McLauchlin
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

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David Gray has been speaking to the media before Hibs host St Mirren in the Premiership this weekend.

Here are the key points from the Hibs boss:

• He believes there were "so many positives" from last weekend's draw with Dundee United. The players "deserved to get the three points" and he told them that on Monday.

• On individual errors that have cost bottom club Hibs this season, he says "nobody makes mistakes on purpose" and it's not a time to feel sorry for themselves.

• Eradicating the errors is about "responsibility" and "accountability".

• Gray reinforced his belief that performances have been good, but knows he is judged purely on results.

• He admits "it can be difficult" to stay positive but he is seeing improvement and how close the group still is despite the poor run.

Hibernian head coach David Gray says data backs up his claim that his side are on the right track, feels that the club hierarchy are on board but realises that results must improve soon if he is to count of their continued support. (Edinburgh Evening News), external

Read Friday's Scottish Gossip in full.

• Hibs have lost three of their last four Scottish Premiership games against St Mirren (D1), more than their previous 17 beforehand (W11 D4 L2).

• St Mirren won both of their league trips to Easter Road last season, scoring exactly three goals each time. The Buddies had only won two of their previous 13 top-flight away games at Hibs before this (D5 L6).

• Hibs have drawn their last three Scottish Premiership games, last having a longer such run in the competition in October 2019 (5 in a row).

• St Mirren have picked up fewer away points in the Scottish Premiership this season than any side (1), losing their last three on the road.

• Hibs have dropped a league-high 11 points from winning positions in the Scottish Premiership this season, a metric they ranked joint second in for 2023-24 (21, level with Kilmarnock and behind only Dundee’s 25).

Brian McLauchlin
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

The buzz word in football at the moment seems to be "analytics". And Hibernian in particular are ripe for analysis just now.

Stats can be looked at in many different ways. For example: Hibs are unbeaten in their last three matches.

Or: Hibs are without a win in their last six matches.

The hard facts, though, are that the club have dropped no fewer than 13 points in the last 15 minutes of games this season.

You can say at times luck is against you, as may well have been the case at the weekend against Dundee United, but there is no doubt there is a nervousness about the team as they approach the final stages of a game.

With only one victory in the Premiership this season David Gray's team are rooted at the foot of the table after the first round of fixtures and will not want to go into another International break bottom of the pile.

The Hibs fans deserve better this season, as does Gray from his players.

When things go wrong, players who arrived in the summer will also come under intense scrutiny. It's fair to say the jury is still out on those brought in during the summer, particularly defenders Jack Iredale, Marvin Ekpiteta and Warren O’Hora and goalkeeper Josef Bursik.

This weekend St Mirren arrive at Easter Road, with the Paisley side having only picked up one point from their five away trips this season.

That said, it's just one win from six home games for Hibs. This Saturday they can go some way to rectifying that record, but only if they can get over what seems to be a mental block in seeing out games.

Defender Jack Iredale says Hibernian "need to do the dirty stuff to earn the right to be able to do the fun stuff". (Edinburgh Evening News - subscription), external

Hibs forward Dwight Gayle is winning his race to be fit for Saturday's Scottish Premiership trip to face St Mirren. (Edinburgh Evening News - subscription), external

Read Thursday's Scottish gossip

Andrew Petrie
BBC Sport Scotland

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More points lost from winning positions than any other side. More goals conceded late on than any other side.

There is a trend at Hibs and it reared its ugly head again on Sunday night as they conceded an 89th-minute penalty to Dundee United.

It all came from a long free-kick into the box that saw Mykola Kuharevich foul Emmanuel Adegboyega. The penalty was awarded, and the visitors stole a point.

It happened in the last home game, too - an 87th-minute Hearts equaliser in the Edinburgh derby, coming from a long throw into the box. Motherwell's 2-1 victory at Easter Road came from Andy Halliday's 80th-minute volley - from a Kofi Balmer long-throw.

Dundee's 2-2 draw was also the result of a late Simon Murray 88th-minute strike. Not a set-piece this time, at least.

It happens on the road, too. In the 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock, points were squandered when Jordan Obita clattered into the back of Bruce Anderson in the box in the 90th minute.

In October, David Gray's side led Dundee United 2-1 up until the 85th minute at Tannadice before a Joe Newell red card put Hibs on the ropes, and they conceded two goals in injury time.

There is a clear message to opposition managers in there. Get the ball into the Hibs box late on, and you'll get something from the game. Nerves will creep into the Hibs backline and someone will make a mistake.

"I'm going to have to say the same thing again, which I've said numerous times this season, we've let ourselves down in the final moment with people not doing their jobs," Gray said after the derby draw.

"When we were seriously asked questions, we failed to come up with the answers," he said the week before. Previously, he described Hibs' defending from set-pieces as "unprofessional".

It doesn't get much better at the top end of the pitch. They've scored just 10 goals - the lowest in the division, joint with Ross County.

"I feel sorry for him, because it's outwith his control," said Sportscene pundit Neil McCann. "As a manager, you can't affect that," agreed former Hibs midfielder Marvin Bartley.

The manager has said the buck stops with him, but he needs his players to start doing their jobs for the full 90 minutes, or they will continue to languish at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership.

Matty Fairnie
Fan writer

I feel like I could copy and paste the words from last week and nobody would tell the difference. Hibs again found a way to not win a football match from a winning position late in the game, with a late Dundee United penalty and a red card for Mykola Kukharevych our undoing.

The penalty was contentious. Myko was penalised for a shirt pull that nobody claimed for, and where the impeded player had no bearing on the play. If that wasn't contentious enough, VAR checked and cleared an apparently clearer foul on Warren O'Hora in the dying moments of the game, which could have given Hibs the chance to win a game they dominated from the first whistle.

The performances are almost there from David Gray's Hibs side. We're not being outplayed in games - quite the opposite really - but we're unable to put teams away and then have moments of madness which are invariably punished. That's why we sit at the foot of the table.

This was a game where three points were crucial, and another where we failed to get the win. It's a recurring theme this season, and we now look at the chance to go again next weekend when St Mirren come to Leith. Hibs really need to win that one.

Matty Fairnie can be found on the Longbangers Podcast, external.

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Another weekend, another late goal conceded by Hibernian and more points dropped from winning positions.

That's the ninth goal conceded in the last 15 minutes of games this season. They have not scored any in that time, and David Gray is under increasing pressure as head coach.

"Ultimately the burden goes on the manager," said former Hibs winger Aiden McGeady on the Scottish Football Podcast. "But any game I've watched Hibs play in the last four or five weeks, they've actually been playing well.

"It's just that last 15 or 20 minutes of the game, they seem to almost deepen off and invite pressure. You don't want to put too much pressure on David Gray and the fans are demanding performances.

"They're getting them, but they're not getting the results. But he does have to start picking up wins. It's one win in 11 and it doesn't make for great reading."

If matches this season ended at the 75-minute mark, Hibs would be fourth in the Scottish Premiership. A hypothetical stat, of course, but it shows how dramatic that drop-off has been.

"It's that Achilles heel of conceding late goals," McGeady continued. "Who takes the blame for that? David Gray is the manager, of course he does.

"He can't control if something happens on a football pitch. The thing I heard about the game was the the lack of substitutions. That's something that the manager might look at and might learn from.

"But he's got to start picking up wins soon because the fans there are demanding success."

• Aiden McGeady was speaking on the Scottish Football Podcast.

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"The thing that's toughest to take here is the inconsistency."

David Gray was left exasperated following the inconsistences in decisions made at Easter Road in Hibernian's 1-1 draw with Dundee United.

Hibs looked to be on track to end a five-game run without a win as they led through Lewis Miller’s first-half header, but United levelled with a 90th-minute penalty from Sam Dalby after Mykola Kuharevich was shown a second yellow card for pulling the shirt of Emmanuel Adegoboyega.

The decision was reached following a VAR review, with referee Colin Steven invited to go the monitor.

Despite being down to 10 men, Hibs thought they were about to be given the chance to go back in front, deep into stoppage time when VAR checked for a penalty after United forward Dalby appeared to grab the shirt of Warren O’Hora, but this time Steven was not asked to go to the monitor.

"I think if the first one's a penalty, the second one's a penalty," said Gray. "If I'm being really honest, I don't think either of them are penalties. The thing that’s toughest to take here is the inconsistency.

"Clearly, you always run the risk when you grab a jersey, so I'd never condone it anyway. It's stupid, it’s unprofessional, it's lazy defending, but we were told that the player has to be able to effect the ball.

"I don't think the player can effect the ball at all in the first one. The referee doesn't give it, then he's advised to go to the screen, so VAR intervenes and then he doesn't do it for the second one where O'Hora can actually head the ball.

"You can clearly see the centre-forward's got his jersey, pulls it up over his back, and he doesn't give the foul, so I'm a bit confused as to what is and what isn't, and why he wasn't asked even just to go over to the monitor.

"If you're talking about consistency, he should have at least been asked to go and see it, purely on what he gave the first one for."