Fatal flaw holding Hibs back - former Newcastle and Crystal Palace veteran identifies key failing

Veteran striker Dwight Gayle believes Hibs players are being too “nice” in the midst of a serious crisis. And the well-travelled frontman says it’s time his team-mates started calling each other out for costly mistakes – before it’s too late.

Free agent signing Gayle’s first goal for Hibs SHOULD have secured them a victory at Tannadice yesterday, only for Joe Newell’s red card five minutes from the end of regulation time to spark another disastrous collapse by David Gray’s men. They conceded a soft equaliser in the second minute of injury time before goalkeeper Josef Bursik committed a terrible error of judgement to gift Dundee United the winner with 99 minutes on the clock.

‘Too nice’

Gayle revealed players had already started talking about what needs to happen in the wake of a defeat that leaves Hibs bottom of the Scottish Premiership table heading into derby week, the former Newcastle and Crystale Palace forward declaring: “We were discussing there what we need to do. And we have to hold ourselves a lot more accountable.

“We are not digging each other out enough, we are maybe all too nice with each other. Each week someone else is letting the team down. Other clubs are not really cutting us open; we are letting ourselves down, giving goals away or not finishing chances off.

“Each week it is costing us. So we have to dig in and try to keep it tight at the back.

“As senior players, we need to dig in and help each other out and try to lead by example. Obviously, I am one of them but there are also a few others in the dressing-room who will have to step up and try to help the team.”

Revealing the mixed emotions he endured during a torrid closing spell, Gayle said: “When my goal went in, it was a relief, really. It was an absolute peach of a ball from Jordan Obita.

“But we are in a position now where we are very nervous going into the end of the game because of the results previously. Going down to 10 men, we were sitting in and allowing balls into the box. We weren’t able to deal with it in the end, so it is just really frustrating.

“In the changing-room afterwards, everyone was really disappointed, but it is down to ourselves, and we just have to be a lot better.”

Asked to expand on his admission that Hibs had become nervous straight after Newell’s red card, Gayle said: “Yeah, obviously I feel like it happens to a lot of teams. When you're one up with ten minutes to go it's going to naturally start to go.

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“But I felt like as soon as we scored it felt like we were going to be protecting that rather than going to get another one. It's natural really especially in our situation where we haven't been winning and haven’t been playing probably the best. We’re only going to get rid of that feeling if we start winning games.”

Hearts at home on Sunday would be the ideal place to start, obviously, Gayle admitting: “We should be up for every game - but we know how much this one means to the fans.

“It is even more important for us to see out the game if we do get the lead. It is obviously something to look forward to

“We owe it to the fans after the last few weeks. It has been really frustrating. Some of the performances have been OK recently in terms of creating chances but we haven’t been able to put it to bed, conceding silly goals.

“We can’t keep saying this sort of thing. We need to start putting points on the board and being a bit more solid.

“We have to keep clean sheets and maybe win 1-0 - I don't think we have done that enough. We need to be more difficult to beat.”