'Back to basics' - Hibs defender issues clean sheet rallying cry

O'Hora in action at training. | SNS Group

Under-fire Hibs defender Warren O’Hora believes getting back to basics is the key to eradicating costly errors. But he says that doesn’t mean sacrificing his playmaking instincts.

Summer signings O’Hora and Warren Ekpiteta have both come in for criticism after being caught out for soft goals over the opening rounds of Scottish Premiership action. With Sunday’s trip to face Kilmarnock at Rugby Park the last chance to fix things before the international break, the centre-half pairing are under pressure to cut out the howlers.

Rookie head coach David Gray is working to reinforce his key priorities on keeping opponents out. And O’Hora revealed that Gray has been stripping the message back.

“I suppose when things are going wrong it can be so easy to just overthink, overcomplicate, couldn't it?” said the Irishman. “Yeah, that's football in a nutshell. It's a game of emotions and sometimes you can get high, sometimes you can get low, it all depends on how the game goes, the atmospheres in stadiums and things like that.

“Ultimately the basics are the ones that win you games, in my opinion. Look, defensively we haven't been doing that in the last four, three, four games and we need to get back to it - and it's something that we're working on.

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“He wants clean sheets; I think everybody wants that. We're working every day on that.

“He does take time for the back five, I'll call it, as a keeper as well. He does take time for us. We have been going through the phases of play if you want to call it, on the training pitch and we've been doing clips.

“It's getting clearer. Like I said, that hasn't been good enough in terms of making some mistakes along the way. It doesn't help at all.

“He's been absolutely clear that in pre-season we prided ourselves clean sheets. We've come away from that a little bit in terms of maybe the games, I can't really put a finger on it, but we just need to get back to the basics of that. The gaffer has said that and we're going through to make sure it's as clear as possible.”

O’Hora is very much a ball-playing central defender, signed by Gray in part, at least, because of his ability to step into midfield, break lines and pick passes. Surely that doesn’t get pitched the wayside at the first sign of trouble, right?

The former MK Dons regular said: “Yeah, definitely, we need to be attacking as well. I'm not saying that we've got to sit in against every team and just be defensive.

“I mean personally, yeah, 100 per cent, I want to be on the ball. We want the centre-backs to step in and break lines and start attacks and that's something that we have been working on. We're not coming away from any of that, there's no doubt about it.

“We'll have to have an attacking threat and for me personally, I want to be stepping in, I want to be breaking lines, I want to be starting attacks, and I'll still try to continue to do that. I don't think we're that far away at all. I think we've been unlucky sometimes in certain games and I think sometimes it's been our own doing, self-inflicted on results.

“As a footballer you want to be in a club where the expectations are high, and the demands are high. Obviously, the start of the season hasn't been good enough and you get told that straight away. That's what I knew I was coming into.

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“So I wouldn't say it has been a surprise for me, it’s something I'm trying to live up to and I need to relish. Obviously, I knew it was going to be a step up from previous seasons and clubs. It's a tough league.

“I haven't played all 12 teams yet but the games that I have played, it's been tough. The standard is definitely up there, one of the toughest I've played in. It's physical, it's quick and the atmosphere can go either way. 

“We've got a lot of new boys in, the spine of the team maybe has a few more bodies in it as well. It's one of them where it's going to take time.

“But there's no disbelief in what we can do there. We all back each other, we all get behind the manager, we all back what he's trying to do and what he's trying to implement, and we have full belief in that.”