Sleepless in Leith - Hibs boss on high expectations, endless analysis and family support

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‘Never forget why you’re doing it’, says rookie gaffer Gray

Sleepless nights after a tough game are nothing new to David Gray. Nor are the regular reminders of just why he puts himself through all that tossing and turning on a regular basis. With three young kids at home, he’s not short of motivation to make the most of his post-playing career.

Having long since learned how to read the mood in a dressing room, the rookie head coach – promoted after four stints as interim boss – didn’t feel any great need to start stripping paint off the walls at New Central Park last week. One look told him that his players were already processing the shock and disappointment of a humiliating Premier Sports Cup defeat to Kelty Hearts.

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As for how he reacted on a personal level, Gray said he’d always been one to mull over things first as a player, and then as a part of the backroom staff to a series of ever-changing managers at Hibs. As he put it: “I was constantly reflecting on how I played and, as a coach, you're still doing the same things. Whatever your job was, responsibilities, because I firmly believe you win together, you lose together so everyone's involved in it together.

“So I'm not really one for sleeping after games, regardless, even after positive ones. But one thing I've tried to really do is only worry about things I can affect, which was always going to be the next day in training. How can I then get the message over to players?

“And then I did spend a bit of time with my family as well because my six-year-old came up to me straight away - and she's not interested in the results, she just wants me to be dad. So that quickly brings me back down to earth pretty quickly, understanding what I'm actually doing and why I'm doing it.

“Because that's what you can never forget, your reasons why you do the things you do. I'm a very fortunate person, I've got a very happy family that I need to provide for all the time. I need to be dad as much as I need to be the best football manager I can be as well, so it's balancing that.”

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While managers regularly talk about the sort of reaction they want to see after a defeat, Gray stressed: “I think players do it naturally anyway: I think you could see the disappointment. I got asked the question. What did I do, did you go mad, did you do these things?

“Sometimes it's about reading the room. The level of disappointment was there for everyone to see. It wasn't through a lack of effort; it wasn't through us playing particularly poorly. It was not taking chances at one end and not killing the game off when we were so heavily on top. You speak about things you can control.

“When you watch it back it's never as bad as it feels. And then when you watch things that are positive it's probably never as good as it actually felt at the time as well.

“So it is about being consistent in how you approach it and how you reflect on it. But for us to go there and lose the game, I'll never ever accept that.

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“We can't accept it, especially the goal we conceded, that was something I was very strong on. And we talk about accountability a lot and I think as a group we need to take accountability for that.

“But as I've already mentioned as well, it doesn't massively change what we're working on every single day, all the good things that are still seen in the game, the things we had worked on. I think then the flip side to that against Queen's Park, we created eight or nine chances and converted five of them.”

If nothing else, losing to League One opponents delivered a reminder to players – especially the new boys just arrived in Scotland – of how heavy the expectations can weigh upon this club, with the entirely justified reaction of supporters making a point on behalf of the manager, who said: “One hundred per cent, I think that's part of being at a big football club. We are a big fish in this group at the moment and everyone's out to try and beat us - and rightly so. I think that's when the top teams are able to churn out their results all the time, and that's the level and the standards that are set all the time.”

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