John Potter explains why his first year at Hibs has been a strange one

About to celebrate his first year at Hibs, assistant manager John Potter has described it as one of the most bizarre 12 months of his career.

Hibs assistant manager John Potter celebrates his first anniversary at the Leith club this weekend. Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group

The coronavirus pandemic wrought havoc on the game, but he says he is grateful that he has been able to tackle the tumult while at a stable club like Hibs and he is full of admiration for the way the players have coped with the situation.

Potter had stayed on at Sunderland after Jack Ross was sacked, but had no hesitation in joining him in Leith. Despite an initial impact as Hibs moved up into the top six, fostering hope that a tilt for Europe was on the cards, the league was halted early and was wrapped up using the points per game method. As a result, they slipped down to seventh.

Players and staff were forced into lockdown and wage cuts and deferrals followed at the club as plans for the new season were thrown into disarray but, having been through administration at Dunfermline earlier in his career, Potter said it was important to keep spirits high and maintain perspective.

“It has been strange,” he said. “We came in and did quite well and recruited well in January and we were looking forward to the semi-final of the cup and finishing well in the league.

“Then we had lockdown and then a very strange pre-season but, even without fans, you think ‘at least we are back playing football’ but a few months on and you now wonder when fans are coming back, even a small amount.

“It would be great to get back to a little bit of normality, we just need to keep doing what we’re doing.

“When we went into administration at Dunfermline I was in charge of the Under-20s. It was strange … pretty much the whole team left, we had points deducted and we ended up in the play-offs. I had stopped playing and had to start playing again, then I had time at Sunderland, which was strange in a different way, brilliant club but just crazy, so this is quite a stable club. It has been strange times, but we have a great bunch of guys. There are good people at this club and we are all working to make things better.”

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