‘Never any doubt’ – Daryl Horgan gives his thoughts on Hibs’ summer signings

Hibs winger Daryl Horgan has insisted he was never in doubt that Paul Heckingbottom’s summer signings would come good.
New Hibs signings such as Christian Doidge, left, and Joe Newell, centre, are now starting to make an impact. Team-mate Daryl Horgan, far right, says the quality of the club’s fresh faces was never in doubt and they will now be going from strength to strength. Pic: SNSNew Hibs signings such as Christian Doidge, left, and Joe Newell, centre, are now starting to make an impact. Team-mate Daryl Horgan, far right, says the quality of the club’s fresh faces was never in doubt and they will now be going from strength to strength. Pic: SNS
New Hibs signings such as Christian Doidge, left, and Joe Newell, centre, are now starting to make an impact. Team-mate Daryl Horgan, far right, says the quality of the club’s fresh faces was never in doubt and they will now be going from strength to strength. Pic: SNS

Heckingbottom brought in a raft of new faces as he reshaped his squad and, claimed Horgan, it was easy to point the finger at them during the Easter Road side’s early season struggles.

While the head coach appeared reluctant at times to pitch the new arrivals into action - six of the nine were on the bench as Hibs lost to Kilmarnock in the middle of last month - seven were on from the start as the capital side became the first to take a point from champions Celtic this season.

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Now Horgan believes they have all settled and are ready to play their part in driving Hibs up the Premiership table while they also have a Betfred Cup semi-final against Celtic to look forward to having returned to Rugby Park to defeat Killie on penalties.

The Republic of Ireland player said: “It’s very easy to point the finger at the new boys when things don’t go well, that always seems to happen.

“But it takes time to adapt when you go to a new club and there was never any doubt in our dressing room of the quality they have and what they can bring to the team.

“There’s a lot of talented players in there but in football everything is always immediate, everyone wants success right away and rarely does that happen and they become the easy target.

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“It wasn’t just the new boys who weren’t performing as we should have done. Now, if we can get them playing regularly, showing the qualities they have and getting the consistency everyone wants in our game, there’s no doubt things will improve.”