Adam Jackson refutes head coach’s claim and says Hibs can deal with boos

Hibs defender Adam Jackson has insisted he and his team-mates are thick-skinned enough to deal with the boos and jeers directed at them as they lost a last-minute equaliser to St Johnstone.

Adam Jackson scores for Hibs in the draw with St Johnstone. Pic: SNS

Head coach Paul Heckingbottom claimed after the 2-2 draw that the anxiety felt by supporters had fed through to those on the pitch, appealing for them to “calm down” and offer more encouragement to his players.

Jackons, however, begged to differ. “I don’t think so,” he said when Heckingbottom’s observation was relayed to him. “We have all played a lot of games, we are grown men and thick-skinned,

“We have to deal with it ourselves, player our game, how we want to play, how we defend, how we attack, it’s down to us.

“It’s such a big club with a lot of fans. What they expect is fair enough. We want to do well, we should be up there and that’s what we are aiming for every week.

“We are gutted because we want to win these games, they expect us to win and we probably should have.”

The fans’ unhappiness, though, wasn’t only confined to the result, having earlier made their feelings perfectly clear as they watched playmaker Scott Allan – who had been asked to play wide right rather than in his more familiar central role in midfield – go off as Heckingbottom made a double substitution, Daryl Horgan and Vykintas Slivka taking his place and that of Christian Doidge.

Jackson defended that decision, saying: “He is bringing on quality players, it’s not as if he is bringing on nobodies. It’s the gaffer’s decision to bring players on and take players off and we back it. He is trying to get the result.”

Asked if he was surprised at the reaction from the stands, he said: “They pay their money and have their opinion as fans. We just have to keep working on the pitch and do what we have to do to try to turn them around and get them onside.”