Adam Jackson: Hibs players are letting Paul Heckingbottom down

Hibs defender Adam Jackson challenges Celtic's Odsonne Edouard. Pic: SNS

Adam Jackson admits the Hibs players are letting down under-fire head coach Paul Heckingbottom.

However, the centre-back is adamant that there are plenty signs that the team and the manager are on the brink of improving their grim predicament.

Heckingbottom was again heavily criticised as Hibs - who are on a ten-game run without a league win - succumbed to a 5-2 Betfred Cup semi-final defeat by Celtic at Hampden on Saturday.

Centre-back Jackson remains fully behind the manager and insists the players must carry the can for the dire run of results. “We’ve got to take a lot of responsibility because we’re the ones on the pitch,” he told the Evening News. “If we’re not getting results, it’s down to us as players. We’ve got to start doing it for ourselves, for the gaffer, for the fans and the club.”

As has been the case in most of Hibs’ recent league fixtures, they showed glimpses of promise in Saturday’s defeat by the champions at the national team. Jackson believes there is enough evidence that things are about to improve for his team in terms of results.

“It’s very frustrating but I’m very confident it will come good,” he said. “The last four or five league games have proven that. We’re getting the performances and we’ve been so close to getting the results. If you watched our last four or five league games, apart from the Livingston game, we should definitely have won most of them.

“In recent games, we’ve been good up to about the 70-minute mark and then we’ve let ourselves down, but once we get that sorted everything will be fine. We all feel that a win is coming, and once it comes, I think we’ll go again and keep winning games. We just need to get over the line with the first one and then the wins will keep coming.”

Hibs started Saturday’s semi-final in bright fashion before falling 2-0 and 4-1 behind. They rallied impressively for a spell in the second half to get back to 4-2 before losing a fifth goal in the last minute. “At times in both halves, we played some good stuff so we know we can do it,” said Jackson. “We just need to do it more consistently over 90 minutes. Once we do that, we’ll start getting the goals and clean sheets we need to get wins. I definitely think it will be a case of everything clicking once we get that victory.”