Shocked Hibs braced for negative week as new signing lands backing ahead of redemption day
Socceroos striker pinning hopes on repeat of Andorra turnaround as new No. 9 misses addressed
At times like this, at a club like Hibs, the learning curve can be damned near vertical. If the new signings involved in Thursday’s brutalising UEFA Conference League loss in Pristina weren’t fully aware of the demands that come with representing the Easter Road outfit, they’re in no doubt now.
From boos and jeers at full-time, to more personalised criticism up close as they boarded their team bus after the game, some of the fresh faces can’t fail to have been a little shocked by the intensity of reaction. Never take the passion embedded in Scottish football for granted.
“It has to be a wake-up call for everyone,” admitted Martin Boyle, the most experienced of Hibs players adding: “Hopefully that’s the one poor result of the season out of the way.
“It’s come at the new players quickly. Everyone has to reflect on it. There are a lot of young boys in there as well, it’s a big learning curve.
“As experienced players, me, Joe Newell, Grant Hanley have to get around them. We have to drive the standards of this football club. We know what the expectations are.
“It falls to us, we have to be better. It’s the first game of the season, not good enough and we have to be better next week.”
History inspires hope - but fan anger justified
The one little flicker of hope amid the horror of the 2-0 loss to Malisheva is that Hibs have been in a similar situation before, turning around a 2-1 defeat to Inter Club D’Escaldes in Andorra – and thrashing them 6-1 at Eater Road. Boyle scored the first two goals inside the opening 21 minutes that night, so he knows what can be done.
Accepting that he and his team-mates deserve the stick guaranteed to make the next few days extremely difficult, the veteran striker said: “We did not meet the standards of this football club. Criticism is coming our way and rightly so.
“We are professional players, it’s part and parcel of the game so we have to take it on the chin. The fans spent a lot of money to go to Kosovo, two flights to get there because there are no direct flights.
“They are entitled to their opinion and if I was in their position I’d be angry too. We certainly have no issue with that.
“Personally, I’ve been here a long time - and have seen it before in Andorra. The experience of that game is very important. We have boys in the dressing room who have turned it around before.
“As players we have to take responsibility, we have to take what is coming. We know it’s going to be a negative week.
“Only us as players can turn it around. We certainly believe in what the manager is doing, that’s what’s got us in this position for the last two years. It’s only us who can turn it around now. We will take what comes this week and it’s going to be a real test of character next week.
“Hopefully the fans are back with us next week, we get a good turn out and we’re able to get a positive result and into the next round. We have to knuckle down, work hard in training then take it to them next week.
“We need to go for it and score goals. There were times where we did have chances and had momentum going forward, but we conceded sloppy goals. We have to be a lot more confident that we were, go for it and show the attacking threats we have.”
New striker Lowe missed TWO good chances
Especially painful for Hibs would have been the sight of new No. 9 Nathan Lowe squandering a couple of fine chances. One laid on a plate for him by Boyle.
“I’d be a lot more disappointed if he wasn’t getting into those positions,” said the Socceroos star of his new young team-mate, who has just joined the club on loan from Stoke. “He’s showed his intent to get in there with his runs, which is good.
“I have been there before myself, missing chances, but he’s a confident lad. He’s come up here to score goals, he showed it last week and no doubt if he gets a chance next week he’ll put it away.
“It’s a learning curve for him, he’s been thrown into the mixer. I have no doubt once he gets a goal he will go on to score plenty for this club.
Malisheva a ‘shock’ to visitors
“Where did it go wrong? Poor goals. We had one off the line but after that, poor goals, we didn’t win enough second balls.
“A lot of people probably expected us to come here and dominate and win the game comfortably. Football is a funny game, it doesn’t work like that.
“They came into it confident after winning 5-0 last week. It was definitely a shock to us and we didn’t react in the right way.
“We had chances for the big man up top and Miguel had a chance but slipped. We have to take the positives from that.”
The pitch was definitely a factor in Pristina. Whoever took the decision to water it between warm-up and kick-off must have a sick sense of humour; all it did was cause players on both sides to go slipping and sliding across a very uncertain surface.
But Boyle insisted: “I wasn’t made aware it was watered. It certainly didn’t feel like it was watered before the game but when it starts, it starts. You have to adapt and we didn’t adapt as well as we should have - they did and they capitalised on it.
“There’s no excuse. We are professional football players who have been around a long time and have played on a lot of pitches.
“It’s not an excuse. Obviously a lot of people we slipping over but the responsibility is on us to put the right footwear on. If that wasn’t the case you have to change at half-time.
“At the end of the day we were not good enough and they thoroughly deserved it. Hopefully we can get the ball down and play next week, play our game, dominate and get the goals we need.”