Stop talking Scottish football down, urges Hibs boss Jack Ross

Easter Ross boss says not enough being done to promote Scottish football

Jack Ross believes the negatives of Scottish football are focused on more than the plus points

Hibs head coach Jack Ross claims not enough is being done to talk up Scottish football.

The Easter Road boss was addressing criticism of the quality of some matches since the resumption of the Scottish Premiership at the start of August.

Speaking ahead of the Capital club’s trip to Perth on Sunday to face St Johnstone, whose match against Aberdeen on Thursday bore the brunt of such criticism, Ross insisted that there are plenty of positives in Scottish football.

Ross said: “It doesn’t keep me up at night but I do think we don’t do enough to promote the game. It’s been that way for a long time.

"We dwell too much on the things that aren’t good. There are negatives to every sport in every country. There are some downsides to the game here.

"But there are a lot of plus points as well.”

With the English leagues going through a shortened summer break following the delayed completion of the 2019/20 campaign as a result of the coronavirus pandemic halting football, the Scottish game is enjoying more of the spotlight than normal.

Two televised matches have ended goalless while Hibs' 1-0 win against Dundee United at Tannadice was lambasted for being short of excitement, but the Hibs boss pointed out that there were several mitigating factors.

Ross continued: “Adapting to having no fans has had an impact on the game. The hiatus was the longest period of inactivity footballers will probably ever have.

“The more games you have on television, the more likely you are to get poorer games in among that. It was the same in other leagues.”

The Hibs boss also had a message for the game’s detractors.

Ross said: “It’s been the case for a number of years. We’re a bit glass half-empty; maybe we’re like that culturally.

“But don’t use this as a time, when there’s no other football on, to batter us down.

"Take a breath and talk up the fact that there are a lot of good things about our game.

‘We just don’t talk about the good things in our game often enough – and we dwell too much on the things that aren’t good.”