Hibernian

Matty Fairnie
Fan writer

With Chris Cadden signing a new deal at Hibs, Alasana Manneh snapped up in January on a three-and-a-half-year deal, and Aberdeen's Jamie McGrath secured on a pre-contract, things are starting to shape up ahead of a huge season for Hibs.

There's still much to play for this season, but the decks have been cleared to allow David Gray the opportunity to really strengthen the squad in the summer.

Hibs' recruitment has been fairly shambolic in recent times, and this left the squad bloated and expensive. The summer's window is a chance to replace quantity with quality and it's essential the club learn lessons from previous windows.

Mackay has Garvan Stewart as the club's head of recruitment, his experience at Bournemouth will be pivotal in helping Hibs make the most of the relationship with Black Knights.

The recent upturn in performances from the current squad, along with the potential of European football depending on how well we see out the season, has taken the pressure off Mackay, Stewart and Gray - it's much easier to build from a position of strength than from a weak starting point.

McGrath, Cadden and Manneh represent great business and are promising signs of things to come.

It's shaping up for an exciting summer, but the main focus is three points on Saturday against St Johnstone.

Matty Fairnie can be found at Longbangers, external

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We asked for your Hibs player of the year - and the biggest disappointment.

Here's what some of you said:

Martin: Biggest surprise - Nicky Cadden. Biggest letdown - Harry McKirdy.

Josh: Player of the season has been Cadden. His arrival in the side has swung the tide massively and is vital to the formation working, being able to push up into a 4-4-2 press as a winger or operate as a wing-back in the 3-5-2. His outswinging crosses are up there with the best in the country.

The biggest disappointment has to be Joe Bursik. A goalkeeper with a good reputation, playing experience at a good level and a good physical presence but he just didn't work out at us.

Laurence: Nectoris Triantis is our player of the year and I hope we can do a deal with Sunderland in the summer if he wants to stay.

Tom: Hard to look past Cadden for how much of a revelation his crossing ability has been. Special mention to Jack Iredale who has hardly put a foot wrong during his time in the team. Although I'm loathe to call a loanee player of the season, Triantis deserves a lot of plaudits for the turnaround from his disastrous time at the club last season.

Sad to say but I think biggest disappointment is fairly obvious. Kwon Hyeok-kyu was one of the few brighter sparks when our form was terrible, but as our fortunes have turned around, unfortunately so has his.

Jamie: It's a toss-up between Iredale and Triantis for player of the year. On the other side of the coin, Bursik was given too many chances but is clearly not a good enough keeper to play at Scottish Premiership level. And Elie Youan's lack of contribution this season has been a major disappointment.

Sandy: There's only one Nicky Cadden, followed by Martin Boyle. The worst player has to be Bursik. He's been a real disappointment.

Peter: The indomitable Rocky Bushiri has been the catalyst to our exponential upturn. His Herculean efforts at the back have provided us with a defensive solidity that was glaringly absent in the nascent days of the season. Rock on Rocky!

With just eight Premiership games left, we're down to the business end of the season.

Player reputations have been enhanced - or sullied - with their performances throughout the campaign.

As thoughts begin to turn to end-of-term awards, we want to know your Hibs player of the season so far - and the biggest flop.

Share your views

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Hibs pair Martin Boyle and Lewis Miller were both on the scoresheet as Australia thumped Indonesia 5-1 in World Cup qualifying.

Boyle opened the scoring with an early penalty for his 10th Socceroos strike while Miller doubled his international goal tally by heading the hosts' fourth in Sydney.

Former Hibee Jackson Irvine netted a double in the victory that keeps Australia second in the group behind Japan.

Hibernian head coach David Gray says the future of 21-year-old on-loan midfielder Nectar Triantis depends on which division parent club Sunderland will be playing next season. (Edinburgh Evening News), external

Read Thursday's Scottish Gossip in full.

There are few finer sights in football than Nicky Cadden wrapping a left-footed cross into the box for Hibs.

He's flings a fair few into the mixer, and he's one of the best at it across the Scottish Premiership. And don't just take our word for it.

Only Dundee United's Will Ferry, who has played in four more games than Cadden, has completed more successful crosses (61) in the Scottish Premiership this season this season than the Hibs' full-back (59).

Imagine what the number would've been had it not have been for injuries.

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The special powers that Police Scotland officers were handed in a bid to prevent crowd trouble breaking out at the Edinburgh derby match at the start of this month and the Old Firm game last weekend are set to remain in use for the foreseeable future. (The Herald), external

Read Wednesday's Scottish Gossip in full.

Matty Fairnie
Fan writer

There was a sense of de ja vu at Rugby Park as Hibs headed home with a point thanks to losing a late goal, just as we had done earlier in the season.

This time, though, the draw was enough to keep us in third place as we draw closer to the split.

It might have felt like 'same old Hibs' at full-time as the disappointment of the dropped points sank in, but this is a very different team from the start of the season when these late lapses plagued our form.

To come out the weekend in third place having extended the unbeaten run to 14 league games puts us in a great place for the final eight games of the season.

We have home matches against St Johnstone and Dundee plus a visit to Ibrox still to come before the split and we have to target a minimum of six points from those games.

If we achieve that I think we have a great chance of finishing third, and you'd have to be looking at Sir David Gray as the prime candidate for manager of the year for a remarkable turnaround at Easter Road under his command.

Matty Fairnie can be found at Longbangers, external

Watch as Sportscene pundits Stephen McGinn and Steven Naismith analyse Hibernian's opener at Kilmarnock. (UK users only)

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Former Hibernian player, coach and Hall of Fame member John Fraser has died at the age of 88.

The Edinburgh-born winger made his debut in 1954 and went on to make 275 appearances for his boyhood club, including the 1958 Scottish Cup final.

Fraser had the unenviable task of coming into the team in place of his hero and club legend, Gordon Smith.

After he retired, he worked with the reserve team before holding a coaching position for over a decade with the club.

Fraser also helped form one of the club's most successful sides in 'Turnbull's Tornadoes' with Eddie Turnbull.

Pat Stanton, who captained the successful side, recalled Fraser as a "terrific mentor".

Rocky Bushiri (Hibernian): The occasional lapse but more often than not a rock at the back for Hibs these days, evidenced again in Saturday's draw at Kilmarnock.

Watch all the action as Kilmarnock fought back to secure a 1-1 draw with Hibs at Rugby Park.

Available to UK users only.

Hibs fans, we asked for your views on Saturday's 1-1 draw against Killie.

Here's what some of you had to say:

Bill: We are missing two key defenders which is costing us, putting as back to where we started the season throwing away points and late goals. The manager tweaking the midfield is not helping. We must take full points from next two home games if we want Europe.

Paddy: Hibs should have been out of sight in the lead before Kilmarnock's equaliser, however a point away from home at a difficult venue will do while retaining third spot in the league

Sandy: At the start of the season we were dropping points, the new squad learning to play together but Hibs are a unit now. Martin Boyle was on fire and all of the players played a part, going for a second goal until the end. This is positive stuff. A tough place to come to Kilmarnock but the unbeaten run continues and the 1949 record broken.

Kenny: Another game we should have won but poor defending at times and not creating enough chances cost us. We need to bring in another goalkeeper, a central defender, a midfielder and a centre forward. The team's done well but if we can fill these positions we will go on to be a force in Scottish football.

Martin: Very poor football. Pitch doesn't help. It was dire to watch and very poor defending on our part so points dropped. On the plus side the unbeaten run continues

George: Good watch for 80 mins, only one team in it. Rhythm went out the window after the subs were made. The last 10 mins reminded me of the first 10 games in season, all a bit rushed. We had chances to bury Kilmarnock and didn't take any. Dust ourselves down and go again next week (hopefully).

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Killie came from behind to snatch a vital point at home to high-flying Hibs.

You can catch all the highlights from the Premiership clash over on the BBC iPlayer or via this link.

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• Martin Boyle has scored nine goals in the Premiership this season (one in this game), more than any other Hibernian player.

• Hibernian have scored in their last four games in the Premiership, scoring eight goals in that run, their longest run of games with a goal in the competition since a run of nine games from 14 December 2024 to 1 February 2025.

• Hibernian have lost 20 points from winning positions in the Premiership this season, no team has lost more.

• Kilmarnock have won 13 points from losing positions in the Premiership this season, no team has recovered more.

• Hibernian are undefeated in their last 14 games in the Premiership, their longest unbeaten streak in the competition (since at least 2013/2014).

• Kilmarnock have failed to win in their last four games in the Premiership, their last longer winless streak was from 3 November 2024 to 7 December 2024, a run of six games.

Kilmarnock rescued an injury-time point thanks to Fraser Murray's close-range finish as Hibernian were denied another Scottish Premiership win in a dramatic ending.

Despite that late concession, the visitors extended their unbeaten league run to 14 matches, having led for a long spell thanks to Martin Boyle's first-half opener. And Hibs stay third after Aberdeen also dropped points on the road.

The point might not be quite so rewarding for Kilmarnock, though, as their hopes of a top-six finish now seem a long shot at best.

Give us your thoughts on the game here., external

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Hibernian head coach David Gray: "No, I don't think we've seen it coming [Kilmarnock's equaliser] in terms of how dominant I felt we were in the game, how good a performance we put in.

"But at this level, at any level, you have to go right to the very end of the game and Kilmarnock are always going to have periods within the game.

"I thought throughout it we stood up to that really well, created the best chances in the game and right now it probably feels like two points dropped because of the level of performance we put in and as I just said, how I felt in the game.

"But it could still be a massive point as well moving forward because it's a real difficult place to come here. The surface is difficult, it's tricky to play on, but I thought the players showed real bravery and confidence on the ball and I think we've reacted in a positive way for a negative weekend last week.

"It does [show how far we've come being disappointed to draw], but it's also because of how the players felt they played as well. I'm standing outside the pitch and watching how we're playing and I thought we played really well.

"But you always run that risk when it's only one nil, so when it's only one nil, you run the risk of being pegged back and unfortunately for us, obviously we need to defend the goal better.

"There's lots of things to learn within that and we'll look at that, of course and that's probably why it probably feels like two points dropped at the moment because of how dominant we were in the game but as I've said, we're not going to dwell on it.

"We need to move on, we've got the international break now, which is important for players to get a bit of freshness into them as well, a bit of recovery, because it has been a bit of a gruelling period for the last two weeks, three weeks.

"But the run continues, 14 games undefeated in the league, which is a fantastic achievement, but we just move on to the next game and want to extend that."

Martin Dowden
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

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That late sucker-punch will be hard to take as it seemed Hibernian had the points in the bag.

They looked to have secured a top-six place alongside that and taken further grip of third place. They will feel a great opportunity has been missed.

Despite that, David Gray's side remain on an incredible league run.

The transformation in their fortunes has been quite staggering and delivering a 14 game unbeaten league run is an incredible return.

Against Kilmarnock, they weren't brilliant, but did exercise control and rarely looked in trouble. The failure to find that second will no doubt frustrate as they had chances.

It's a blow but in the grand scheme of things, Hibernian seem in a great place.

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Martin Boyle and Junior Hoilett, particularly in the first half, were excellent.

The pair were integral to most of their side's fine attacking play with Hoilet registering the most passes into the final third this afternoon with 17, while Boyle created the most chances at Rugby Park with 3.

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Kilmarnock have lost Kyle Magennis for six to eight weeks with the knee injury that forced him off against Ross County.

Kyle Vassell and Stuart Findlay remain out after ankle injuries but both are back running.

Hibernian are without influential pair Nicky Cadden (hamstring) and Joe Newell (pelvis).

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"Model professional" Chris Cadden has extended his stay at Hibs to summer 2027 by signing a new two-year deal.

Since joining in January 2021, the 28-year-old Scotland cap has made 129 appearances for the Edinburgh club and he has been a key part of their turnaround this season.

"We're really pleased that Chris has committed his future to Hibs," said head coach David Gray.

"During my time at the club he has been performing at a high level and been a mainstay of the starting XI.

"He's a model professional at the training ground, a great character in the dressing room, and understands what it means to play for Hibs."

Sporting director Malky Mackay added that Cadden, who has played 28 games this season, is a role model for young players and "exactly the type of character we want at Hibs".

Charlotte Cohen
BBC Sport Scotland

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Hibs head coach David Gray has been speaking to the media as his side prepare to face Kilmarnock this weekend.

Here are the main points:

• Gray says his players are handling the cup defeat to Celtic well given it's "a feeling we've not had for a long time" and insists they're even more focused on maintaining their unbeaten league run.

• He adds that the squad are coping "really with with the big game mentality" and insists they'll "keep pushing forward" to finish as high as possible this season.

• On Nectar Triantis' maiden Australia call-up, Gray says the midfielder is "fully deserving" and that it shows the club gives players a platform to "do well in international football".

• The Hibs boss says they'll address Triantis' future in Edinburgh "as and when" but for the moment he is still contracted to Sunderland.

• On Nicky Cadden's hamstring injury, Gray reiterates he'll be sidelined for a few weeks but will be back for the "business end of the season".

• Joe Newell is also still unavailable but Gray is hopeful the captain will be back involved next week.

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Hibs midfielder Nectarios Triantis has been rewarded for his impressive club form with a first senior Australia call-up.

The 21-year-old - on loan from Sunderland - has been a key figure for David Gray's side this season, scoring three goals and contributing five assists in 25 league appearances.

Despite a difficult start to the campaign, Hibs are on a 13-match unbeaten run in the Premiership, featuring wins over league leaders Celtic and Edinburgh rivals Hearts, with Triantis coming to the fore.

He has previously represented his country at age-group level, but could now win a first senior cap in World Cup qualifiers against Indonesia and China later this month.

"In October and November he was playing games, but a little bit raw," Socceroos head coach Tony Popovic said.

"He's developed confidence, playing really well and they are on an unbelievable run. I saw him play live against Celtic, he set up a wonderful goal, played well and he looks confident.

"I look forward to seeing him in camp and seeing what he can do."

Triantis will have at least two familiar figures to lean on while away with Australia, with Hibs team-mates Martin Boyle and Lewis Miller also selected.