Will 'fit and strong' Hibs have legs to knock 'difficult' Partizan out of Europa Conference League?
Dundee win boosted spirits ahead of Belgrade adventure
This is why they worked so hard in preseason. These are the weeks when David Gray puts faith in the athleticism, professionalism and sheer bloody-mindedness of his Hibs players.
Having made just one change to the starting XI for yesterday’s comfortable 2-1 win over Dundee at Dens Park, a positive start to the Scottish Premiership campaign in front of over 3000 travelling fans, the manager is likely to ask many of the same players to go to the well one more time in Belgrade on Thursday night. The first leg of a Europa Conference League third qualifying round tie is no occasion for taking unnecessary risks.
So Martin Boyle, who has the thick end of 280 minutes under his belt in the first three competitive fixtures of the season, factoring in extra time in last Thursday night’s agonising Europa League loss to Midtjylland, will be leading the line. Alongside Kieron Bowie, who played his first 90 minutes since the season before last in yesterday’s domestic triumph.
All over the park, there will be guys drawing upon the reserves built up in a punishing preseason schedule. Double and triple sessions. Plus friendly games in demanding conditions.
Gray is confident that his players have a base level of fitness to cope. And that he’s got the playing resources to drop performers in and out of Thursday night’s contest at key moments.
Scotland striker Kieron Bowie double sunk Dark Blues at Dens
“Yes, it's difficult,” he admitted, when asked about picking a team to start, clarifying his main concerns as he added: “It's difficult because you can get caught up in how many minutes players are played, the emotional side to it.
“But I’m also quick to remind the players of the level of performance that they put in against Midtjylland. The two legs were of a really high standard - and needed to be to even be involved in the tie. To bring it home Easter Road had to be a high level - and I thought we even upped it in the home leg, which is a real positive to the players.
“But it is only game week one, first game of the season. We're not as if we've went Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday. So the players are fresh, they're ready to go and they're all playing with confidence.
“They want to try and stay in the team. So I'm always conscious of that as well.
“This is why you do what you do in pre-season. We're preparing for knowing this was coming up.
“It's something that as players they should relish and look forward to. They're all fit, strong players.
“And at the very highest level, they will all be playing two or three games a week all year round, the number of games at the very elite level that teams have to play. And they're all proper athletes. Everyone does it properly, professionally. And we've got a really good squad.
“So when you look at the bench coming on and affecting the game in a positive way, we demonstrated that on many occasions last season and it's certainly going to be required over this real busy period. Every week my decision is difficult to name a starting XI because of the quality, the strength and depth that I've already touched on. And you're always looking at what you believe gives you the best chance to win the game of football.
Some players ‘tired’ after Midtjylland and Dundee double
“When you just look back at Thursday, the Midtjylland game and the second leg on its own, a lot of players played significant minutes. But we also got a lot of the players off.
“So if you look at players that started the game, they might have played 60, 70 minutes. Subs that came on, we're still playing 60 minutes. So it was still a lot of players got significant minutes in that, which probably made my decision a little bit easier in terms of knowing they're all physically in a good place.
“I think a couple of them look maybe a wee bit tired towards the end (against Dundee), as you naturally would expect. But I think the big thing and the positives to take from it was the concentration levels required.
“When you've got a lot of the ball and you look at the challenges, for example, Celtic face, you know concentration need to be the highest level. Because one mistake, you can get punished. At this level, you have to be on the top of your game all the time.”
Hibs have, of course, never qualified for the group/league phases of European football since the variously rebranded UEFA competitions were switched up from the old knock-out format. Scottish teams outside the Old Firm have, in general, struggled to make an impact on even the Conference League.
In different circumstances, Gray’s men might already be looking forward to the league phase of UEFA’s third-tier club competition. Aberdeen’s Scottish Cup victory over Celtic saw Hibs robbed of that prize. Meaning they need to beat Partizan just to reach the Conference League play-offs, where they’d face either Legia Warsaw or Larnaca.
“I think all we can do is what we've done, which is give ourselves the best possible chance, from a mentality point of view, mindset, the feelgood factor,” said Gray, reflecting on the Dundee win as he added: “Even look at the fans again, who were outstanding.
“We had 3000 of them up with us. The noise they made from start to finish really gets players over the line.
“You can never underestimate the power of the fans and what they do for the football club. It's just keeping that momentum going.
“We’re not getting carried away at all. We need to keep working hard. There's areas we need to improve.
“But we gave ourselves the best possible chance, going over there to look forward to another fantastic European night. Which is the reward, as I keep saying, for their efforts for last season.”