The key behind outstanding Hibs turnaround: Ex ace senses how Gray's gone from sleepless nights to Euro charge

Former Hibs midfielder Kevin Thomson reckons one strong sense has been key to the club turning their fortunes around.

There were fears of the drop in the early stages of this season with David Gray’s first season as permanent boss getting off to a rocky start. He is now guiding a team that are 16 unbeaten in the Premiership and continued their third place charge by beating Rangers 2-0 on Saturday.

A final game pre split is to come against Dundee this weekend before matches against top six clubs will decide whether or not they’ll have a possible European league phase spot. Thomson has been watching over the team this season and has been left delighted for Gray, who he knows well. He believes a sense of togetherness has been key to getting Hibs off the canvas and back up swinging, as even when performances haven’t been top class, they have still managed a way to get results.

Hibs togetherness key

Thomson told the Scottish Football Podcast: “I think Dave and his staff, the players deserve an enormous amount of credit. They've been a breath of fresh air. I think the key for Dave or the confidence I'm sure he'll take is that they've been well on top in games and won comfortably.

They've also found themselves at different times where they've had to play with 10 men. They've, well, maybe not so much through this run, but especially at the start of the season. So I think when you think of a camaraderie and a togetherness in the squad that can find different ways of either blowing teams away and scoring early and then keeping that run and holding it out or potentially coming from behind and winning games.”

Surviving sleepless nights

When things got tough, Thomson reckons his pal would have been struggling to sleep at night. But now he is proving he is a boss for the big occasions with wins against Celtic, Rangers, Hearts and Aberdeen, rallying against a picture that Hearts counterpart Neil Critchley is sometimes brushed with.

He added: “When you kind of talk about the narrative that, you know, Critchley is not winning big games, Dave Gray is winning big games for sure. He deserves a lot of credit because I've got no doubt without kind of putting it on him to ask if that was the case, but I'm sure he had a few sleepless nights when things weren't going so well. When you think of him as a manager now moving forward, he's probably never going to get as low as he was apart for getting sacked really.

“So I think it's built up a lot of resilience in him as an individual, a lot of experience early on in his managerial career and he's managed to come out of the other side. So listen, as a friend of mine, obviously delighted. As a fellow Hibby as well, obviously I'm delighted to see them doing well.”