Hibs goalie bounces back - and admits: 'I'd probably give myself abuse if I was chucking them in!'

Josef Bursik gets it. Understands that the life of a goalkeeper is often one long experience in running the gauntlet.

The former England Under-21 star even admits that, if he was a Hibs fan watching himself cost his team goals, he’d be tempted to hurl a few insults and ask the odd pointed question. All part of the job, right?

Grateful for the faith shown in him by David Gray following his calamitous role in the recent collapse against Dundee United, the on-loan Brugge goalie coming out to claim a nothing ball and only clattering his own defender as the home side grabbed an injury-time winner at Tannadice, Bursik has enough real-life experience to put things in perspective. Losing his dad at the age of 22, for instance.

So yes, he’s determined to improve on his performances at Hibs. An impressive performance in Dingwall last night was, he hopes, just the start.

But the 24-year-old can’t afford to start listening to outside noise. Even if he does understand where it’s coming from.

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“I'm a fan, fans speak and that's fine,” he said, adding: “I'd probably give myself abuse if I was chucking them in as well, so it's what it is!

“I'm not particularly bothered. Listen, if you do things that cost your team the points, it's hard to take. But we're all together and people have gone through little hard periods and that's what teams are for. 

“When you go to different places, I've been to Belgium, come up to Scotland, you don't really tap into it, so I'm not really bothered. I play football enough to know that people will talk about things.

“The way I look at it is I’m a Chelsea fan. And if the keeper is not playing well there and people talk rubbish about him, if I do the same, it’s the same thing.”

Asked if his confidence had taken a knock after being involved in a couple of ugly concessions over a difficult start to his time at Easter Road, especially in the wake of events at Tannadice, Bursik insisted: “No, not at all. The day after you're a bit down on that, but then you go in training, and you make it right.

“I’m a positive guy, there's no point going in and having your head down. I put a smile on my face and I'm lucky to do this job, so I can't help but smile every day.”

Admitting that having a lot of first team experience to date made it easier to cope with a crisis, the former Stoke goalie said: “For sure, it toughens you up, doesn't it?

“Away from football, I've been through much harder stuff, so it puts things into perspective. I just go out there and try and enjoy myself.

“Like the game on Sunday, it was a great derby, it's great to be involved in. Even against County I enjoyed every minute of it, it's a shame we couldn't get a win, but I just go out there and enjoy it.”

Gray was absolutely insistent, in the wake of the United loss, that he hadn’t lost faith in Bursik. The gaffer then backed that up with his selections, standing by his keeper.

“It's good, I think he's a great coach and I get along really well with him,” said Bursik, commenting on the head coach’s decision, adding: “He has great integrity, and he showed that with the whole team. 

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“I've had a couple of tough games, but I like to think I'm pretty strong in the head, so I don't really go into games and listen to anything, don't read anything. Anyone can say anything, I'm not really bothered, I just go out there and enjoy it. More often than not, things go well. Stuff happens, whatever, it's part of the job. 

“It's nice to keep a clean sheet (against County). It's even better if we can turn those kinds of performances into wins, especially after a long journey up, it's sweet when you can come back home with a win. But the clean sheet is good, we've done our job as defenders and as a team, it's a whole effort so we can take positives from it.”

And that brilliant reaction save to keep his team in the game late in the first half, sticking out a huge hand to turn aside Kacper Lopata’s header? All in a day’s work, it seems.

“I do things like that in training, so it's nice when they come off,” admitted Bursik. “Probably the less you know about it, sometimes for keepers it's good because it just happens.”