'Exciting times' for Hibs says Monty - despite latest 'injustice' in derby draw

Bournemouth owner's buy-in has manager aiming high

Montgomery (centre) at training this morning.

Nick Montgomery believes exciting times lie ahead for Hibs following billionaire Bill Foley’s investment in the club. But he’s keeping his focus on the immediate challenge of picking up points – and putting right the “injustice” of Wednesday night’s derby draw in Gorgie.

Reacting to Tuesday’s AGM vote giving the final green light for Foley to take a 25 per cent in exchange for £6 million, with the Bournemouth owner promising to help establish Hibs as the undisputed third force in Scottish football, Montgomery said: “There's been a lot of talk about the off-field stuff over the past couple of months. It's exciting for the club moving forward.

“When I took on the role, there was talk that the club was going to try and grow and make partnerships like this, and it's really exciting for the club, for the fans, for the players and for me as the manager. It's good that it's all kind of been settled in the past couple of weeks. My focus has been on the football side and that doesn't change on a day-to-day basis - but the future is definitely bright.”

Montgomery said there had been no communication with the SFA following the furore caused by Kevin Clancy awarding Hearts a dubious penalty in the 1-1 midweek draw at Tynecastle, despite VAR asking the referee to take a second look at the incident, the straight-talking Yorkshireman declaring: “I think it was a massive injustice, everybody can see that. But that doesn't give us any points back – and we can't control that.

“We've been playing really well. The new boys we brought in are really starting to settle and getting the boys back from international duty has coincided with the last three or four games and I think we have had some real momentum. I think we should have had more points than we've got. That's something we can't change but what we can do is turn up at Easter Road tomorrow for another big game and put in a good performance.”

Hibs welcome Ross County to Easter Road tomorrow afternoon knowing that a win will at least keep them within touching distance of sixth-placed Dundee, just a point ahead as they welcome Kilmarnock to Dens Park. Making the top half of the table when the split comes, with Dundee and Hibs both having six more games to play, is a priority.

“I genuinely believe we should be in the top six now if we hadn't have had a couple of unfortunate things go against us in the last few weeks,” said Monty, who will be without Luke Amos for the next couple of weeks due to injury. “But we are where we are, and we've still got an opportunity to get there. The main target is to try and get three points in every game, and that won't change. We know it's in our own hands to get into the top six.”