Hibs skipper on possible farewell - and need to back words with action

Scottish Cup great opens up on a lifetime spent being ‘judged’ - and loving it

Hanlon is lifted aloft in a scrum of Hibs players celebrating his goal.

Sounding very much like a man who knows his time as a Hibs player is about to end, Paul Hanlon will always be interested in every detail – good, bad, encouraging and madly frustrating – of each development at the club he’s supported since childhood. Even if he doesn’t end up on the coaching staff, one of the possibilities mentioned in this final season of his playing contract, there’s no chance of this lifelong love affair simply fizzling out in a few weeks’ time.

He's worth listening to, then, when he makes it clear that Hibs need to start backing up big talk with emphatic action. That simply saying they want to be challenging at the business end of the Scottish Premiership is no substitute for getting the job done.

Bringing all of the insight you would expect to addressing the next big steps for his team, the veteran centre-half – a joyous and celebrated scorer in Saturday’s 3-1 away win over St Johnstone – speaks candidly about a professional lifetime being “judged” and the importance of seeing out this unsatisfactory season with at least some signs of life. He is equally adamant that the current campaign, forever tarnished by failure to make the top six, should never be deemed acceptable.

Looking beyond the summer to ambitions and expectations, the Scottish Cup winner said: “I think top six is the target first and foremost, then challenging from there. I’m sure that’s the ambition for the club going forward. No-one is hiding away from that.

“But we probably need to do a bit more acting on it, rather than just saying we want to do it. We need to start doing it.

“It’s kind of been pretty irregular over the last 20 years or whatever, in terms of finishing in these positions, so it’s about acting on it now, I’d say.”

In the short term, Hibs at least met minimum expectations by winning the first of their five post-split fixtures. If you’re going to be saddled with a match calendar of limited appeal, the least you can do is not mess it up.

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Hanlon is clear on what is required, pointing out: “I think at Hibs you are always being judged. There’s not five minutes when you’re not being judged by the fans or whoever is watching, because you are playing for a big club.

“Obviously for the manager and the staff, as well, you are always being judged on your performances. So it’s not a case of just being able to down tools. People will notice and criticise you if you aren’t taking it seriously - if you aren’t giving it 100 per cent. So that’s been the message, that we have to do everything properly, because people will be waiting to shoot you down, and waiting to question you.

“I think everyone felt it (failure to make the top six). There have always been high expectations at this club, and they’ve probably been raised even more in the past few years. We need to be in the top six. There’s no doubt about that.

“We didn’t meet our most basic objective for the season, that top-six finish. Everyone realised it. The whole group know that it isn’t acceptable.

“There were question marks going into the St Johnstone game about our mentality, people asking what our mentality was going to be like when we’ve had that disappointment and there’s not much riding on the games. But I think we showed against St Johnstone that we have character, that we are fighting every week for the club and for the fans. Hopefully we get good results like this between now and the end of the season.”

Celebrating his 28th first team goal after coming off the bench as a substitute for the injured Will Fish, Hanlon joked about his strike rate over a decade-and-a-half in green in white, the 34-year-old saying: “To be fair, I’m sure I’ve scored one every season, so at least this season’s ticked off now! Obviously first and foremost, at 1-0 up in a game, you’re coming on as a defender and thinking: ‘Right, make sure we’re solid at the back.’ But any time I go up, I want to get my head on it, foot on it, whatever.

“It was a long throw-in from Joe, I managed to get a little flick on originally and it fell to me in the box. A nice wee finish with my right foot!”

It says everything about Hanlon’s status at the club that so many of his team-mates were so obviously thrilled to see him scoring. The fact that Joe Newell, the regular stand-in skipper who handed over the armband at McDiarmid Park, was the first to congratulate the captain was a measure of his popularity.

Most in attendance will be aware, of course, that his scrambled effort – with his right foot, too – may well be his last major contribution to the club he’s served so well. That includes the man himself.

“That definitely did cross my mind,” he confessed, adding: “The older you get, the more you appreciate those moments. Being a Hibs boy growing up, every goal is special to me.”

Asked outright about his future, Hanlon said simply: “There’s been a few chats. But it’s one of them that will probably be announced in a few weeks, with the weeks running out now. So probably an announcement will be made in the next few weeks.”