How Hibs could climb FOUR places with one win - Gray believes team can leapfrog County to revive season
High stakes as Staggies visit Easter Road for must-win clash
Hibs have been reminded that they still have control over their own destiny as David Gray looks to lift his troops off the foot of the Scottish Premiership table – by OVERTAKING their opponents in Saturday’s must-win clash at Easter Road. And Gray hopes the opportunity provided by the visit of Ross County demonstrates just how quickly a season can turn.
With just two league wins from their opening 16 fixtures, Hibs are stranded in 12th place after accumulating a dozen points to date. Having moved up a place with an impressive away win over Motherwell, Gray’s men returned to the bottom courtesy of last weekend’s 3-0 loss to Celtic in Glasgow.
But they’re within one win of all four teams immediately above them in the table. And rookie head coach Gray is urging his men to seize this golden opportunity to climb the table - knowing that results elsewhere could play into their hands.
“The attention quickly changes to Ross County because of what's actually at stake this weekend,” he said, adding: “We’re playing against a team that's currently sitting eighth in the table.
“I know teams will play each other in between that, but if we beat Ross County at the weekend, we go above County, who are currently sitting eighth. So that's how quickly this can change.
“And that's the full mindset, not looking any further than that just this weekend, which is the opportunity at home against Ross County, which will be a tough game, always is. But the focus is on making sure we go in there and get three points and back up the performance level against Celtic, but also probably the performances in the last three games.”
Despite losing 3-0 to the reigning champions at Celtic Park, many – including Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers - were impressed by Hibs, who created and missed three absolute sitters in a game where home goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel picked up Man of the Match honours. Gray, who had expressed mixed emotions immediately after the loss, admits he needed to strike a balance when the squad gathered for group analysis on their first day back at training.
“The reality is you lose 3-0,” he said, adding: “So it was hard to come in being positive off the back of defeat.
“Because I hate losing noughts and crosses, never mind a game of football. So that was probably the balance, acknowledging that we’d lost, but at the same time taking a lot of positives to take from the actual performance and what we asked the players to do.
“Coming in on Monday morning, it had been hard to digest exactly how I was feeling straight after the game. Purely because I knew the level of performance had to be very good to create as many chances as we had. So that side to it, and moments in the game where the things I asked the players to do, we've done, those were good.
“The frustration and bits that really annoyed me were probably the goals we lose. Some of it was just basic defending so that's avoidable. And the set pieces at times, we didn't do that as well as we have done.
“Just our organisation point of view on that, people not quite doing the jobs they've been asked to do in certain situations or reacting in the right way. So they're all the things you can improve and show the players and demonstrate.
“And I think then the attention, we had to deal with that on Monday and quickly change towards Ross County, because that's the third time we've played Celtic. We know they can do that to most teams, but they demonstrated exactly why they're the best team in the country, which is to take the chances with clinical and their moments.
“But again, we highlighted where we need to improve. And then we started to focus immediately on County, because we know how big this game is.”
How Hibs can leap FOUR places in one weekend:
Victory at Easter Road would see the home side automatically leapfrog Ross County.
St Johnstone failing to beat St Mirren on Saturday afternoon would also see Gray’s men go above the Perthshire side.
With Hearts and Kilmarnock not playing until Sunday, Hibs would – temporarily, at least – move into eighth place in the Scottish Premiership.
Come Sunday, a few different scenarios could play out at Rugby Park. Intriguingly, a draw between the teams would leave Hibs in eighth, ahead of Killie on goal difference.