David Gray: Hibs fans right to voice frustration over club's current situation but players must show mental resilience

Under-fire Hibernian head coach David Gray leads a training sessionUnder-fire Hibernian head coach David Gray leads a training session
Under-fire Hibernian head coach David Gray leads a training session | SNS Group
The Easter Road boss faces a potential win-or-bust showdown against the Dons on Tuesday night.

David Gray knows exactly the predicament he finds himself in. The under-fire Hibs boss is aware he simply cannot survive too many more defeats.

Saturday’s latest setback - a deflating 4-1 loss by Dundee - kept the capital outfit rooted to the bottom of the Premiership table and without a victory in eight games.

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Next up is the visit of Aberdeen, who had been in excellent form prior to suffering their first league defeat of the season at St Mirren last weekend. For beleaguered Gray and his players, the rearranged game in-hand presents an opportunity for them to move off bottom spot.

Throughout their torrid run of form, Gray has applauded supporters for continuing to stick by his side. It has been a period of real adversity and one that left the Easter Road legend confiding in a few other managers who have previously found themselves in a similar situation and under severe threat of losing their job.

David Gray must feel like he cannot buy a break as Hibs managerDavid Gray must feel like he cannot buy a break as Hibs manager
David Gray must feel like he cannot buy a break as Hibs manager | SNS Group

Gray admitted: “I speak to quite a few people, to be honest. I’m not going to single anybody out, but a few people that have been in this position before, people who obviously just want to see you do well. They’re not just going to tell me what I want to hear - that’s something I’ve been quite consistent with when I’ve been speaking to people about certain areas.

“Anyone who I speak to, who understands football, or have been involved in football before can see the areas in which we’re getting it right and the areas in which we’re failing. That’s clear for everybody to see in certain things, which I’m not going to keep repeating myself on those front about. But that definitely does give me the confidence and belief about what I am actually doing and making sure that I’ve still got that belief to turns things around and I still honestly have.

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“Listen, I said after the Dundee game, we had about 1500 fans come up there to support the team in horrendous weather conditions and when the game was on the TV. It would’ve been easy for a lot of them not to do that, but they’ve been 100 percent right behind us from the start and I know they’ll be behind us again on Tuesday night. They always have been in the stadium.

“They’re voicing their frustrations and rightly so because of where we find ourselves, that’s part of being at a big football club that’s underachieving at the moment from a performance perspective on the pitch. But we need to be big enough and strong enough to deal with that. It’s only us that can turn it around and that’s the challenge for myself and the players.”

Despite the current mood among the club’s fanbase being universally bleak, Gray retains full belief he has the backing of his players following their latest hapless loss at Dens Park. He has called on his players to stand up and be counted while limiting two key factors - the amount of widespread errors and indiscipline that is proving so costly.

“100 percent,” Gray confessed ahead of Tuesday’s meeting with the high-flying Dons at Easter Road. “I think that’s evident in any bad run of form. Firstly, I look at myself but you need to make sure that you’re still getting buy-in from the players every single day. I think that’s probably been reflected more in the last couple of games when a few players who maybe haven’t had as much game time as you’d expect them to are coming on and still trying to do everything they can to turn it around. You can see they’re all in it together, they’re all still desperate to turn it around.

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“It’s very easy for me to sit here and say I feel it every day in training. There’s a good group here that are desperate to do well, but we need to take that onto the pitch and it needs to be reflected on the pitch. That’s the challenge for the players and myself to make sure we’re ready for it and get in the right frame of mind to go and do that.

“I think one thing we couldn’t do with such a quick turnaround with Aberdeen so quickly is go over as much of the game in detail as you maybe would normally. Obviously, you need to learn from the mistakes made, but you can only worry about what you can affect moving forward. With it being such a quick turnaround, that’s the area we’ve not got a lot of time on the grass to fix things or change what we’re trying to do.

“Plus you need to help the players recover properly and get them back in the right frame of mind. I actually believe at this moment in time, it’s probably the mental side to the game that’s the most important thing. Dealing with the position we find ourselves in; the noise that comes around it; the expectation and demands of playing for this club. But also the challenge that faces us. The quick turnaround time is about how mentally you can get yourself going again.”

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