Eddie May on Christian Doidge, manager hunt and not having watched Hibs all season

Christian Doidge savours his hat-trick at McDiarmid Park.

Eddie May praised hat-trick hero Christian Doidge after he scored his first league goals for Hibs in the emphatic 4-1 win away to St Johnstone.

The Welsh striker, playing alongside Florian Kamberi in a two-man attack, had come under fire after an underwhelming start to his Easter Road career but he finally made his mark with a poacher’s treble to help his team notch their first league win since the opening day of the season. Scott Allan scored Hibs’ other goal.

“It couldn't have gone any better and I'm pleased for the team,” said caretaker May. “The two up top certainly helped, they were both exceptional even though Chris got the goals. And it should be the standard this club sets out to achieve. He needs goals - he's a centre forward, that’s what he’ll be judged on, but what I would say is he's done a hell of a lot more than that over the past few weeks in terms of his contribution to the team, he just hasn't had the goals his play deserved. I’m delighted for him though.”

May made five changes to the side that started the Betfred Cup semi-final defeat by Celtic, most notably dropping off-form midfielders Stevie Mallan and Josh Vela, and deploying Kamberi and Doidge as a partnership in attack. The academy chief explained that he was picking a side with fresh eyes as he hadn’t attended a first-team game all season.

“I've never watched Hibs all season,” said May. “I choose not to, since I'm in charge of the academy - so if that’s not normal, what we saw today, and they’ve been exceptional here and not in other games, then we just have to ask the question of how they maintain it.

“The last game I was at was last season when they lost to Aberdeen in the last game. And that's great for me, because I can't judge the players on what they've done in the past. All I can do is look at what they've done in training since Tuesday, which is why I picked the team I did. Fortunately it worked today but that's down to the players, no-one else.”