Josh Campbell: Hibs loanee looking to add goals with Edinburgh City

Edinburgh City’s Josh Campbell insists he is hungry for more goals now that he is up and running in his professional career.

Josh Campbell is currently on loan from Hibs at Edinburgh City.

The on-loan Hibs midfielder unleashed a 25-yard pearler in the 5-1 opening-day win at Brechin almost a fortnight ago and came agonisingly close to a second – from a similar distance – only to be denied by the woodwork in the 1-0 reversal to ten-man Cowdenbeath last weekend.

And the 20-year-old, who joined the League Two Citizens last month, revealed he has been tasked with finding the target more regularly during his season-long loan by his parent club.

“I think I have settled in really well,” said Campbell ahead of league leaders Elgin City’s visit to Ainslie Park tomorrow. “Knowing the manager prior to joining has made things a lot easier so I’m enjoying it. I was fully behind the decision to go out on loan. I need the experience of playing first-team games so it made perfect sense. I was in and out of the team at Arbroath last year so I wanted to go somewhere where I’d play regularly.

“Hibs have told me they want me to get goals from midfield so I’m aiming for somewhere between ten and 12 if I can. They believe I’ve got a good strike so I just need to use it more. I’d been watching a lot of Stevie Mallan in training and his shooting technique so I can credit him for my goal against Brechin.”

Campbell says he is desperate to return to winning ways having spent the past week agonising over the defeat to the Blue Brazil.

“Tomorrow is a really big game for us,” he said. “Elgin have started really well so it will be a tough one. But we’re the home team, they’ve got a long journey down here so we need to get back to winning ways.

“I’m not wanting to go through the playoffs or anything like that so last week was a real setback – I want to win the league while I’m here and we have the players to do it. It was pretty painful to be honest but I thought Cowdenbeath managed the game very well. They defended everything we threw at them so hats off to them but to come away without even a point was very difficult to take.”

Come 5pm tomorrow afternoon the youngster’s thoughts will have switched to Hampden and the Scottish Cup semi-final clash between Hibs and Hearts.

“I’ll be straight off the park and home to watch it,” he said. “I’m confident Hibs will win. I just think they’ve started really well, have played a lot more games so that should stand them in good stead. Anything can happen in a derby though – you only have to look at last season when Hearts were rock bottom and came away from Easter Road with a win. I’ve supported the club since I was a boy so I am Hibs through and through.”

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