Feel the firepower - how Hibs forwards have hit form

Monty sees magic in attacking options

Dylan Vente and Martin Boyle have had plenty to celebrate in recent weeks

The head coach may quibble with the statistics, but not the sentiment. Whether it’s taken summer signing Dylan Vente five or six shots to bag his last five goals, the centre forward is undoubtedly putting up numbers to impress Nick Montgomery.

With the Hibs gaffer also able to call on a striker he calls “one of the best of his generation” in Adam Le Fondre, there’s a reason why he feels so pleased with the firepower at his disposal.

And, with the tireless Christian Doidge, livewire Martin Boyle and unpredictable Elie Youan all more than capable of contributing, you can see why opponents might spend a little extra time working on defence ahead of games against the Easter Road outfit.

Montgomery, aiming to maintain his unbeaten start as head coach with a third straight win at home to Dundee this afternoon, said of the Vente stat doing the rounds on social media yesterday: “I think it was six shots, five goals, I was told. But if it’s five in five, even better…

“Martin Boyle gave him five in five? I wouldn’t believe what Boyley says!

“If you look at Dylan’s career, even at youth level, he’s scored 20-odd goals a season. That’s not easy to do.

“It was good, astute business by the club to sign him. By all accounts, he didn’t have much of a pre-season, he came in a bit unfit but from what I’ve seen he’s a great person, firstly, and a hard worker.

“He’s a player who has belief he can score every time he steps on the field.

“And if you have three of them – with Doidgey and Le Fondre, one of the best of his generation – it’s nice to have those options.

“Dylan’s been fantastic – he’s very low maintenance, listens and does what we ask him to do.

“He’s in the right place at the right time and the composure in his finishing is high level.

“You can coach strikers, and I’ve played with some very good ones, but ultimately you can’t coach them where to be in the box when the ball arrives, for me that’s a knack and Dylan has it.

“And he’s always out practicing his finishing. At times, you have to chuck him off the training ground, especially with three games in a week!

“But, yeah, you don’t want to stop that. We like to do extra with the players and work on their individual development.

“Dylan is enjoying his football and is playing in a team that’s creating chances. As a striker, that’s the teams they want to be in.

“It won’t always be the case, sometimes there won’t be a lot of chances in the game and you have to be clinical. To have Dylan, Le Fondre and Doidge in the team, that’s something I’m very happy about.”

Invited to expand on his high praise for 36-year-old Le Fondre, Montgomery said: “You look at his career, he scored plenty of goals in the Premier League, coming off the bench when he was at Reading.

“If you’re a striker scoring in the Premier League, you must be high level.

“He’s scored goals everywhere he’s gone, including against me in Australia! Balls that hit defenders drop at his feet and he taps it in.

“He’s really important. The strikers I name there all have different qualities, but Alfie is really intelligent.

“He finds those half-spaces and his awareness of what’s around him is top class. The flick for Dylan against St Johnstone was top class.

“If you see that at any level, you hold your hands up… the awareness, the weight of pass and Dylan understanding what he’s going to do, we work on that in training as well.

“When you have players of that intelligence, you’ll always have chances to score goals.”

Vente’s three goals in as many games have taken him to five for the season, while Le Fondre has found the net three times, sitting level with Doidge.

Boyle took his tally for the season to six with a double – which should have been a hat-trick, by his own admission – in the midweek Viaplay Cup quarter-final win over St Mirren, while Youan has four to his name.

Asked if Hibs fans might see several players reaching double figures over the course of the season, Montgomery said: “Yeah, I was talking purely about central strikers but, with the way we play, Elie and Boyley can score and assist. All of them can do that.

“We need to make sure they defend as well and understand their role is not just to score. They have to work hard for the team, if not they won’t play.

“But they’re all honest and not afraid to track back to do the other side of the game. It’s always nice to have players sharing goals around.”