Hibs skipper makes major admission as team rally around gaffer Gray ahead of must-win St Mirren clash

Hibs captain Joe Newell believes players aren’t doing nearly enough to shield rookie head coach David Gray from mounting pressure. But the skipper says nobody in the dressing room has “checked out” or given up on the gaffer.

Gray’s men are rooted to the foot of the Scottish Premiership table after picking up just one win in their first 11 league games of the campaign. They have a chance to regain some forward momentum with tomorrow’s visit of St Mirren, which is as close to a must-win game as you can get so early in the season.

Newell admits players feel responsible for the criticism being directed at Gray, who took his first leap into management when Hibs handed the former coach and captain a battlefield promotion in the summer, the midfielder insisting: "Definitely, yes. He's the manager. He knew exactly what he was getting into, I think, coming into management.

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“It's not easy. It's his first job and he'll never sit in front of you guys and not take all the responsibility himself. He will always be honest and, in his mind, truthful and he'll never shy away from it.

“But as the captain and as a group of players, I think we have to do so much more for him.

“He deserves so much more than what he's getting at the minute in terms of results. The staff, the manager, have worked so hard since they've come in pre-season.

“I feel personally that we've got a group of players that should be a lot better than where we are - and we're not doing enough for him at the minute. It's as simple as that.”

Offering up his insight on where the dividing line between coach and player responsibility lies, on any given weekend, Newell said: “He sets us up right. I think the last game, for example, just because it's in the forefront of my mind, really good performance, tactically really good. Probably just not clinical in the final third enough.

“But that should show that as a manager, he's setting his team up in the right way, he knows what he's doing. Bar a late call, we should have been three points.

“Other instances throughout the season, red cards ... He can't do anything about me lunging in with five minutes to go, 2-1 up. Nectar's red card, last-minute penalties. These are all things out of his control.

“So, of course, I feel for him, and we all do. We're all desperate to turn it round for him, especially.

“I've been in dressing rooms before where you can see players have just checked out. That's not this group at all. That's, again, another reason why I'm firmly confident that we'll improve from where we are.”

Within the first team at this level of football, coaches are entitled to expect players to do a lot of self-management. Individually and as a collective, grown-ups shouldn’t require a manager or assistant to drive standards.

Newell, insisting that players feel free to call each other out in regular group meetings, said: “You can't take anything personally. I've sat in this room before and got hammered by managers and stuff - and then the next week you're good.

“You have to just take it because as soon as you start taking it personally, that's when problems can occur. I'm sure it's similar in every business.

“But the main thing is, if it's happening, it's a good thing. Because if I'm turning round and I'm telling Cadds (Chris Cadden), for example, he's got to improve, then I turn the other way and Junior (Hoilett) is telling me I've got to do something, it means all three of us care. The moment that kind of stops is when it's a worry. 

“It's not like we're sitting here and we're getting battered every week; we're just not being clinical enough. And then obviously, as we touched on, how we're finishing games off.

“I see the character and the enthusiasm around the training ground, the work rate that everyone's putting in and the want to get out of the situation. I take a lot of enthusiasm and pride from that. That's what I'm looking for, giving me hope that it can turn around.”

Newell, pictured with gaffer Gray and assistant Craig Samson, feels players can do more to help the coaching team. | SNS Group

Gray hasn’t once thought about throwing his players under a bus, looking for excuses or shirking responsibility for results. That hasn’t gone unnoticed by the team.

“That's completely predictable with the kind of man he is,” said Newell, the skipper adding: “He's not going to shy away from it. He's not going to pass the blame onto anyone else. He would have every right to, I think, in my opinion.”

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Newell insisted, meanwhile, that making his 200th appearance for the club against Dundee United is an achievement can’t even begin to enjoy at the moment, given the current crisis, saying: “It's not really a time for me to think about my personal milestones and stuff at all. I think I got given a shirt with 200 on the back and it's genuinely still in my locker in the changing room. I've not even taken it home yet.

“I've not had time to think about it or reflect on it yet. I probably will do, hopefully, in the near future, but for me at the minute it's all about the team and us getting out of the situation we're in.”

The Hibernian Community Foundation added Newell to their board this week, the captain revealing: “I was really pleased when I got asked by the guys to help out. Marsh (David Marshall) had done it last year, but obviously with him stepping away while retiring, they felt the need for the connection between the group of lads and the foundation.”