Saints flashbacks haunt Hibs as Perth return prompts painful memories

McDiarmid Park is the kind of football stadium that only a ground-hopper on a completist streak could pretend to love. For Hibs fans, it’s rarely been a venue associated with unbridled joy. And, in this campaign of collapsing form and chaotic late concessions, it deserves to be remembered as the place where their team’s season went to die.

As Nick Montgomery’s men prepare for another fun trip to Perth, fully aware that Craig Levein’s St Johnstone will be nothing if not hyped up by a chance to inflict misery on the visitors, are you brave enough to revisit their last contest there? Any supporters prone to post-traumatic flashbacks should look away now.

Because, as anyone who was there on the afternoon December 16, 2023, will remember, Hibs lost more than just three points courtesy of a 1-0 defeat that could have been much, much worse. You want a list?

First to fall, in order of importance, was their one-point lead over city rivals Hearts. When you look at the gap between the teams now sitting third and seventh, respectively, it’s incredible to think that Hibs went into that game against St Johnstone sitting two places clear of the Jambos. Before kick-off at McDiarmid was the last time Monty’s men could enjoy the feeling of leading their nearest neighbours, who have since guaranteed themselves European group stage football next season by dint of finishing Best of the Rest in the Scottish Premiership.  

Also lost in Perth was the opportunity to apply pressure in the race for that all-important third place. Hibs started the day just a point off the pace. A win would have taken them clear in third, regardless of Hearts winning 2-0 at Celtic Park on the same afternoon. They never did manage to establish themselves as genuine competitors for Scottish football’s prime consolation prize.

And that’s because they lost possibly the most important quality of all on a bleak and painful day at McDiarmid. The momentum they’d carried into that match, having won four of their previous five league games, was scattered the four winds by one horrible afternoon.

Now, if one bad result could send them into a downward spiral, that suggests Hibs were never going to be tough enough to hang around at the business end of the table for very long once Montgomery’s new-boss bounce dissipated. Appointed in September after the departure of Lee Johnson, Monty was probably getting better results than his team deserved at that stage.

Because what followed was a calamitous collapse, with the loss to St Johnstone marking the start of an EIGHT-game winless run in the Scottish Premiership. By the time that miserable stretch was done, they’d fallen to eight place in the table, a full 14 points behind third-placed Hearts – and even ten adrift of fourth place.

While a seven-game unbeaten run in the league was decent, they needed more wins to make the top six. And the fact that Hibs have only beaten three Premiership teams in 2024 – Dundee, Ross County and Livingston – reveals plenty about their inability to mix with the above-average sides.

As Montgomery fights to prove himself worthy of continuing as Hibs boss, we look at the five killer results – starting with that away loss to St Johnstone, who have the honour of featuring twice in this list – ultimately responsible for them becoming unwilling participants in what is officially called, on most fixture lists, the SPFL Scottish Premiership Relegation Group: