'I always believed' - why Hibs boss kept faith in return to winning ways, as Gray prepares men for Dons test
Scottish Premiership tougher than ever - as Dundee beating Celtic demonstrates
Hibs boss David Gray insists he never doubted his team’s ability to start turning draws into victories. But he believes that a season full of upsets and shocks prove that the Scottish Premiership is more competitive than ever – making it tougher to put together a run of wins.
Gray’s men bagged just their second Scottish Premiership victory over the season on Saturday, seeing off Livingston with a thumping 4-0 win at Easter Road. Hibs now head to Pittodrie on Sunday, no doubt hoping that Jimmy Thelin’s Aberdeen are feeling fatigued after tomorrow night’s UEFA Conference League game in Athens.
Livingston result a statement win
Although Hibs had only lost one league game all season, against Hearts at Tynecastle just before the international break, the win over Livingston felt like an important statement result for a group of players who had drawn five of their eight fixtures. A first Premiership victory since the opening weekend of the season merely helped Gray hammer home his message that Hibs were ALWAYS trending in the right direction.
"It's easy to say once it happens that I think it's been coming, because I do think the level of performance has been good,” he said, adding: “We've spoken a lot about the chances we're creating, but maybe not taking, and missing on opportunities and not killing games off. It was really pleasing to see that, it gives the players confidence and belief.
“But internally, there has always been that belief. I see it every day in training. It's easy, again, to say that off the back of a result, but it's about making sure you keep working hard on the things that you're doing and believing in what you're doing.
“And we're demonstrating to the players why this result was coming. It's just great to finally get it done, and then they can look forward to a really good one on Sunday."
Dundee ‘deserving of win’ over Celtic - Gray
Gray, who bounced back from a horrific start to his first campaign as manager last season, insists he sees increased quality across the board in Scotland’s top flight. With Sunday’s events at Dens Park, where relegation strugglers Dundee beat reigning champions Celtic with something to spare, an ideal reminder of how tough the division has become.
Asked whether he could remember such a strange start to a campaign, a grinning Gray said: “I don't think it's could have got much stranger for me than last season, to be honest! I think the league is what it is.
“I've heard a few managers comment on it as well. I think it's improving all the time, when you look at all the teams that are in it, there are a lot of teams that have added a lot of athletes into their group. There are no easy games; it's hard to win games of football, everyone's seen that.
"You look at how well Dundee did against Celtic, they were deserving of their win at the weekend. Every game's hard, every game's hard to win.
"It's hard to win games of football at any level, but especially this season, it's going to be, as it is pretty much every year, really, really tight. And it's about trying to put a wee run together when you can."
Addressing the challenge presented by the Dons, Gray said: "They've got a very good squad. I know they've got the game on Thursday night, so we'll look forward to watching that.
"We want them to do well, we want all the Scottish clubs to do well in Europe. But we'll have one eye on us going up there on Sunday.
"They've developed a really strong squad, they've got a lot of quality in the team, and they're starting to click a little bit now as well, which you can see. It will be a difficult game, but as we've demonstrated at times this season, we know we're a good side. We need to take the confidence from the weekend and go up there to try to come back with three points.
“Everything I spoke about before the Livingston game, I definitely got – the reaction, the way we wanted to play, and then an almost complete performance with a clean sheet and four goals at home, which was really good. It is now about building on that.
“I said that, going into the international break, we were having to use it as a bit of a reset, to make sure that there were no excuses now, we needed to move forward, we needed to make sure that we started putting wins on the board. So it was really good to start with three points at home.
"Now it's all geared up towards a really tough test on Sunday, but a really good game to look forward to. Obviously, we're just off the back of a win, they've won a couple of games themselves, so it's got all the makings of a good game."