Have Hibs really improved since day one defeat? St Mirren clash a chance to PROVE they're on the up

Forget the stats for a minute. And apply the old-fashioned eyeball test to a Hibs side whose capacity for throwing away points would be enough to drive a Zen master to the brink of a breakdown.

From where they started their league campaign, way back at the beginning of August, have David Gray’s men improved? Tomorrow’s visit of St Mirren, 3-0 winners on that opening weekend in Paisley, provides an ideal opportunity to test the theory.

So far, most would accept the results have lagged behind performance levels for a side with a couple of glaring failings. If that’s little consolation in a business littered with the hollowed-out husks of relegated teams who weren’t awful, by any criteria, it at least makes the challenge to Gray pretty clear.

Asked if he thought his team had become a better and more complete unit since that crazy collapse away to Saints on August 4, the Hibs boss said: “Yeah, I think naturally. I think even when you look at the signings we've made, a lot of them, because some of them happened later in the window or a lot of players coming out of the squad are more used to Scottish football now, they’ve come on.

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“Certainly the defenders, like the two centre-backs, for example, have played a lot of games now, understand the level. That was their first game in the Scottish Premiership. 

“Players getting fitter, the group getting stronger. Some of them not having had pre-season and arriving later. All the different challenges within that, but we’re also just working together every day and understanding exactly what I want. 

“Performance doesn't win anything. The only stat in performance that matters is the score in the corner of the screen.

“The first game of the season, even if I go back to that game, you look at it and it's a 3-0 defeat, but actually on the balance of play, we should have been up a couple of times. Huge chances missed again. 

“That's not something that's ever went away, we know that, but goals change games clearly. And then when you look back to the second half and we do lose the goals, it's an individual error that's cost the goal at a really poor time when we were on the front foot again in the game.

“So we lose the goal right after half-time, really poor start to the second half, and then we're on the front foot straight after that and then it's an individual error that costs us the second goal and the sucker punch from that and then they score right from kick-off again. 

“In that little 10-minute window, the game was done. But actually in isolation, the performance, especially the first half, was really good.

“And I can say that a lot about our performances this season in certain games, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm not hiding behind it or saying: ‘The performance is good, so that means we'll be alright.’ There is a balance, of course there is, and I trust in results rather than performance.”

Both Marvin Ekpiteta and Warren O’Hora look more composed and controlled in the centre of defence now that they’ve found their feet. Gray, for one, never had any doubts about the pair. Not even when Ekpiteta was going through a torturous settling-in period punctuated by costly errors.

“I think that comes from repetition and training,” explained Gray. “It also comes from playing games together and probably getting through the difficult moments. A lot of them were individual errors.

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“As a coach, you're always scrutinising your defence. When you score a goal, you look at your team and say it was brilliant play, but the opposition managers are saying: ‘Well that was poor, that was poor, that was poor …’

“Celtic cut us open a couple of times and Tom Lawrence scores a really good goal for Rangers, a worldie goal for the edge of the book. But I can't remember us really losing many goals where you would say teams completely cut us open. It’s been a poor back pass or a bad touch or dropping your man at a corner or not doing your defensive duty.

“Marvin, for example, he obviously had a tough time at the start, but I really stuck by him because he was brought into the club to defend the box and he's been exceptionally good at that. You see that with all his numbers, the way he does that. 

“So that's why, the longer you play together, the more confidence they get together and I think that we are benefiting from that. The other side now is the top end of the pitch. Because we’re not scoring, the defence under more scrutiny, especially towards the end of the game - but the players at the top can kill the game off with opportunities we've had.”