No Brum’s rush for Kevin to head south
Doidge: Hibees pal has benefited from staying put
CHRISTIAN DOIDGE insists Kevin Nisbet is benefiting from his bankbusting deadline day move to Birmingham falling through.
The Hibs hitman was the subject of a several bids from the Blues, worth more than £2million, as the clock ticked down on the last window.
But Nisbet eventually stayed at Easter Road when the English Championship club pulled the plug on the move after a third offer was rejected.
The striker was initially taken out the starting XI by Jack Ross as he came to terms with his big miss.
But he’s returned to help fire Hibs clear in third. And just last week he fulfilled a lifetime dream as he made his Scotland debut coming off the bench against the Faroe Islands.
With attention now turning to the Scottish Cup, Doidge reckons his 14-goal strike partner is profiting in football terms from staying in Leith.
He said: “Definitely. I think
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he’s a happy striker and happy strikers are very deadly.
“He’s in a good place at the moment and we’ve just got to make sure he stays happy, keeps enjoying his football, and I’m sure he’s going to really kick on for the rest of the season.
“That Scottish call-up is going to give him a bit of a confidence boost, to see what it’s like to represent his country.
“And I’m sure he’s going to be striving to get into that squad in the summer.
“He knows he’s got to put in the performances for Hibs to warrant that.
“He is so young but has scored a helluva lot of goals for such a young age. To be in his first year in the Premiership and still get the figures he has is no fluke.
“This league is not easy to score in and you have seen a lot of players not score as many goals as Nizzy but get really big moves.
“He can go as far as he wants to, he has the right mentality and as a centreforward that is really important.
“He works hard so I hope he takes that into the rest of the season and gets to the Euros for Scotland, he deserves it.”
Doidge himself hopes to have turned the corner too after finally ending a wretched 15-game goalless run with the equaliser against Livingston last time out.
The big Welshman says the support of manager and teammates was crucial to helping him come through the wretched run.
Now he has finally got the monkey off his back he’s determined to repay their faith by helping fire the Easter Road club to their best ending to a season, securing third and going all the way in the Scottish Cup starting with tonight’s third-round trip to Queen of the South.
He said: “I definitely wasn’t worried because the things the manager was telling me were all positive.
“As a striker you want to score as many goals as you can but if it’s not going for you, it’s not going for you.
“I knew that my overall performances were good enough . The lads appreciated that so I was never going into games feeling I shouldn’t be out there.
He’s in a good place and we’ve just got to make sure he stays happy CHRISTIAN DOIDGE
“We have a great changing room here and the boys are so supportive. We always chat about certain things and try to improve each other and encourage each other.
“They would always be telling me, ‘it’s going to drop this week’ – and I’m just glad it did against Livingston.
“That would be the perfect season, if we can get third and win the cup. But we know it’s not going to be easy. We need to be at the top of our game.”