Hibs heading for drop zone - and denial is no defence as gaffer's future distracts from wider crisis

Are Hibs in serious trouble of being relegated from Scotland’s elite division? Absolutely. Anyone who fails to recognise that either isn’t paying attention – or is so deep in denial that not an even Egyptian Navy submarine could locate them with Sonar.

"Well, we're a third of the way through the season now, 13 games played,” said Joe Newell, the club captaining answering the inevitable question about being engaged in a battle for survival with an honest: "So, yeah, I'm not going to lie to you, we obviously are.

"Things can change very quickly, is what I would say. If you win Tuesday night and win on Saturday, you don't know where that puts you in the league.

"And then you know what a little run can do for you in this league. We personally won't be looking at it like that, obviously, because there's still a long way to go. But you can't deny where we are in the league."

With all due respect, it’s difficult to see Hibs beating Aberdeen at Easter Road on Tuesday night. Motherwell at Fir Park next Saturday seems too far away to fret about, just yet.

While there is obvious focus on manager David Gray’s future, the grave nature of the current crisis affecting the first team – a reflection of the wider leadership structure at the club, in the eyes of many – cannot become secondary to the soap opera surrounding one manager’s future.

Yes, the transatlantic coalition currently holding firm in the Easter Road boardroom would look very silly if suddenly they decided to abandon the public vote of confidence afforded Gray less than a fortnight ago. Then again, yesterday’s performance at Dens Park was bad enough to get any under-fire manager the sack; that’s just how the game works.

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Whether or not the decision makers at Hibs stick or twist, regardless of their ‘final’ and binding decision to either stand by their man or cut and run, it’s now impossible for fans to reassure themselves that missing out on a place in the top six is as bad as this season can get. Bottom of the table and with just one league win to their name, this is a team heading for the Scottish Championship.

Newell, admitting that there had been angry scenes in the away dressing room at Dens following a humiliating 4-1 loss for the ten-man visitors, who had gone a goal up only to lose Jordan Obita to an avoidable red card after just 11 minutes, said the onus was now on players – not management – to shoulder some of the burden, the skipper saying: "You have to look at yourself. There's 11 players on the pitch, you're not playing tennis, There's 11 people out there, it's a team game. "We're all in it together, so there's no one taking the blame, there's no one taking the praise when the good times come or anything. You're all in it together. But it's a team game, full of individuals. So everyone has to get up their professionalism and their mentality up there.

"When the chips are down, you just have to find something and dig deep. You have to when you play for a club of this size. I've been here a number of years now. I've had a few bad times, good times.

"You have to have that strength, and you have to have that shoulders back mentality. It's not a time for waving your arms in the air. It's time to roll your sleeves up and think - come on, let's go, because you've got no other choice. "You want to play for Hibs, you have to deal with the pressure and the weight that comes of it. So we've got two games coming up in six or seven days. It's still a massive opportunity to have a good week after, obviously, a shocking start.”

‘Unacceptable and indefensible’

Providing some insight into the group dynamics playing out against the background of such a dismal season, Newell revealed: "There's obviously emotions and tempers and a lot going on. Again, it's very hard to speak straight after the game. "It's more emotion rather than anything sensible. That comes in the meetings tomorrow and the day after, when you can kind of analyse it with a bit more of a clear head.

“I've not looked at anything back, so my initial feeling is just gutted, angry, embarrassed. It's just Groundhog Day, here we are again.

"It's not the first time it's happened this season and it's just so far away from where we should be. It's just unacceptable, indefensible, whatever word you want to use.”

Newell, acknowledging that he’d been one of the players to let Gray down by getting sent off in last month’s horrifying late collapse to Dundee United just across Sandeman Street at Tannadice, has no explanation for a run of four red cards in the past six games. For a team who picked up just a single red card during the whole of last season, this sudden loss of discipline must be alarming.

The midfielder asked: “What can the manager do about that? He sets the team up. We've worked so hard in the international break. "He's set us up tactically to come into this game with a real good game plan, we felt.

"And we've really felt it coming into it, the enthusiasm and the atmosphere has been good. We've worked really hard to try and get out of the situation.

"And the warm-up, we felt really good going into it. We started the game on fire, not just the goal, but we had several chances in the first 10 minutes. And I thought, right, here we are, let's go. And then what happens happens.

Jordan Obita is sent off early on for Hibs. | SNS Group

"Jordan's a great player. He's been a great player for us since he's joined and he's been very good lately, I think.

"I was there four weeks ago; you feel like the whole world's coming down on you and you feel horrendous. But you get on with it, you have to.

“Like I said, what can the gaffer do about the situations we've put him in? Whether that be late goals early on in the season, red cards. All these things are kind of coming against us and it's completely self-inflicted.

"I know you would expect me to, but I'll stand here in defence of the gaffer all day long. Because he's not setting a team up or putting players out there who I think are not worthy of winning these games of football.

"We're doing things that are killing ourselves. So as the captain, as a group of players, I have to - and we have to - do so much more for him and for this football club than we're currently doing. It's as simple as that."