Penalty controversy, a new striker and an accent on youth - talking points for Hibs fans

Key issues arising from another missed opportunity in St Mirren draw

Nick Montgomery must occasionally feel as if he’s undergoing some bizarre initiation process; two full months of “hazing” intended to test whether the new boy is man/mad enough to stick around in this uniquely entertaining corner of Planet Football.

Working with players who, on current evidence, might struggle to hold on to a winning a lottery ticket if asked to keep it safe for 20 minutes, he’s hardly had his troubles to seek.

At times, he’s appeared almost incredulous over the naivety of his team, the apparent double and triple standards in on-field and video assistant refereeing – see penalties and offside decisions especially but not exclusively – and a couple of dozen other little quirks that pass for normality in the new gig.

As the new gaffer recovers from yet another blown opportunity against St Mirren in Paisley, then, what key talking points emerged from a dramatic 2-2 draw?

Here we go again

Nobody wants to talk about VAR after every single game. From the Champions League down to the Scottish Premiership, though, it seems as if very few football folk are actually happy with how the system is being used. Or misused.

Looking at the penalty decision that went against Hibs last night, there are a couple of obvious points to make.

First, Jordan Obita and Richard Taylor appear to be engaged in nothing more than the usual sort of wrestling seen at every single corner in every game of football ever played (see Photo 1).

Photo 1

Photo 2 shows that, yes, Obita has a tug on Taylor’s jersey. Clear and obvious.

Photo 2 VAR

But Montgomery’s point about neither player being in the same postcode as the ball is borne out by Photo 3. Watch the incident back in real time, not slowed down to a frame-by-frame examination of each split second, and nobody can deny that Taylor was ever going to be ‘active’ in challenging for the delivery.

Photo 3

Monty has a case, then, when he suggests that penalties for this level of offence should be handed out ten times in a game. They aren’t. Ridiculous? That seems like an appropriate word to sum up the situation.

Josh Campbell is a centre forward – even if he doesn’t know it yet

Given a run out as a second striker in support of Dylan Vente, the midfielder (former) scored a fine goal, had a chance to bag a second – and managed to really upset the St Mirren defence with his running, strength and willingness to initiate contact.

Montgomery, who decided against risking Martin Boyle after the Socceroos star felt a “tweak” that forced him off in Saturday’s Hampden loss to Aberdeen, said: “We need energy, we want to press high and we did that really well.

“When players come into the team, I want to them to give a big effort and wear the shirt with pride.

“Josh put a big effort - and then young Josh Landers comes on at the end to make his league debut. Those are the positives we’ll take from the game, as well as a lot of the play we had.”

 

Rory ticks another box

A first start for Rory Whittaker, still just 16 and already the youngest debutant in Hibernian history, felt like an important stepping stone for the right back, who finally got to play in his favourite position after being thrown into games as an attacking substitute.

The kid is still raw, obviously. He’s going to take time to figure out just how tight he has to get to prevent crosses from the average Scottish Premiership wide man. But his potential is clear.

“He was outstanding,” said Montgomery. “For a 16-year-old kid to start in a game away from home, I thought once the nervous energy went out, he was very good.

“You forget how young he is, but I think the future is bright for him at the club.

“I’ll continue to give the young boys opportunities if I feel they’re good enough and, at 16 years old, Rory showed he can compete with experienced SPFL players. That’s a credit to him.”

There are no easy fixes

Until he gets his first transfer window out of the way, Montgomery is stuck working with the players he inherited from Lee Johnson.

They can do all the technical and tactical work possible during daylight hours on the training ground. Even call in motivational speakers to address the squad.

But holding on to leads, basic game management that should be learned in the first year of academy football, isn’t a problem solved at a stroke.

Without an easy answer, the coaching staff are simply trying to raise standards across the board and hope that quality earns Hibs another couple of wins before January, Monty saying: “We just keep going, keep playing the way we’re playing and following the process.”

And it brings us back to V.A.R.

One final point on the video review system. Nobody in the stadium, save for the BBC guys who had a live feed in front of them, knew why the penalty was awarded.

If the SPFL/SFA/referees are never going to share replays on the big screen, the least they might do is introduce a series of NFL-style hand signals for officials, giving the punters some clue or hint about the offence committed.