Performances are good and results will come, insists Hibs boss Jack Ross

Keep calm and carry on. That’s the message from Hibs head coach Jack Ross, who insists results will come if his team maintain recent performance levels.

Hibs head coach Jack Ross, pictured at training, has no concerns about performances of his squad's physical condition, but knows he needs results

One win in eight cinch Premiership matches means his team are now in the bottom half of the league, but expectations and objectives have not changed at Easter Road.

Ross regards three games coming up in quick succession against opponents all below them – Livingston, St Mirren and Dundee – as an ideal opportunity to get back up to where he feels they belong.

“It’s about staying calm and believing if we continue to play that way as individuals and as a team, then consistent results will come in terms,” he said ahead of Wednesday’s trip to the Tony Macaroni Arena.

“We have games in hand. We go into three games in six days knowing that three positive results will take us higher in the league and into a much healthier position.

“It’s not like we need to rely on other things happening. It’s an important spell because once we get these games out the way we are back on equilibrium with a lot of other teams.

“We need to take advantage and put ourselves back into, minimum, an area we should be in and that gives us a platform to go higher back to where we were for a long period.”

There is certainly no sense of alarm or panic in the camp, despite the run of poor results.

“That’s down to the performance level,” explained Ross. “I’m pragmatic with the group. So when we started the poorer run against United at home and Aberdeen away we didn’t play well. The players knew that, we assessed it that way and that was a concern for me at that time.

“Although we’ve not been perfect, a lot of the performances recently have had more positives than negatives.”

Hibs are in the middle of a run of 12 games in 41 days, but Ross also feels his squad are standing up well with the physical demands of the schedule.

“It’s been good, we’re really pleased with them,” he insisted.

“We used the period of inactivity we had due to the Covid disruption, we worked hard to put a base on the players for this period.

“And I have been really pleased with what they have produced physically, how they are in the aftermath of matches and also how bright they have been psychologically as well.

“It has been encouraging so far, we’re probably in the middle of this run now. But everything so far has been positive in terms of how they have handled it physically.”

Ross doesn't see they need for wholesale changes and is not concerned about lack of preparation time on the training pitch either.

“Not if performances are strong,” he said. “We did a lot of work prior to coming back to playing and results have still been up and down, which is frustrating. But we feel as if individually players have played a lot better than they did prior to that run starting.

“I’ve got a group of players that I’m pleased with at the moment. I’m concerned that we’re not winning games consistently. But I’d be more concerned if I wasn’t getting players who are responding the right way.”

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