HECK OF A WAY TO SHIFT THE BLAME

THERE is a real despondency around Hibs at the moment. Even when they went 1-0 up against Celtic, the atmosphere at Easter Road felt really flat. It’s almost as if a lot of the fans are just waiting for a change to be made and for Paul Heckingbottom to be relieved of his duties. The Hibs boss (right) claimed the officials had let his team down on Saturday, specifically referee Kevin Clancy’s decision not to send off Olivier Ntcham. Yes, by the letter of the law, Ntcham should have been shown a red card because he raised his hands in a clash with midfielder Josh Vela. You just can’t do that in the modern game — but Heckingbottom is clutching at straws if he’s pinning the blame solely on Clancy. The reality is that his team only had two shots on target and their goal came from a freak incident which saw Kristoffer Ajer put the ball through his own net. Yet, there he is, charging around kicking water bottles at people on the touchline and making a clown of himself. Celtic had far more cause to feel aggrieved at Clancy because he denied them two stonewall penalties. If he had given them, like he ought to have done, then Heckingbottom would have been staring down the barrel of yet another damaging defeat. It feels like Heckingbottom is trying to paper over the cracks and point the finger of blame elsewhere. There were quite a few empty seats on Saturday. Certainly more than you’d normally expect when a club like Hibs host one of the Old Firm sides. The attendance was a smidgeon over 18,000 — almost a full 2,000 down on when Hibs played out a thrilling 2-2 draw with Celtic a few years ago. It’s not hard to work out why. The fans know what they are seeing in front of them, no matter what Heckingbottom might say.