COLLINS v HIBS PLAYERS
the rag after a 1-1 draw at St Mirren just three weeks later.
According to midf ielder Michael Stewart, he accused the players of downing tools, with Scott Brown left so upset that he called chairman Rod Petrie on the bus back from Paisley.
Petrie apparently indicated his door was always open and the fed- up players decided to walk through it af ter another spat at the end of a 1- 0 loss to Dunfermline.
With the Press sniffing out the story, the summit had to be moved from Easter Road to Petrie’s house, where 20 players crammed into his living room to mmoan about the mmanager’s “boring” ttraining and lack of ininterpersonal skills.
Despite listening tto their complaints, PPetrie sided with the ggaffer and skipper RRob Jones had to isissue an apology on bbehalf of the squad fofor their revolt.
All this happened in the build- up to theirt Scottish Cup semi-final with the Pars and it led to one of the great post-match interviews in the wake of that 0- 0
Hampden stalemate. Scott Brown was thrust in front of the cameras and when asked if he had been involved in the revolt came up with the memorable reply of “dunno” – an answer he repeated for each follow- up question by an exasperated Rob MacLean.
The Pars won 1- 0 in the replay and Hibs would have to wait until the last game of the season before tasting victory again.
The hear t was ripped out of the side that summer as Brown and Chris Killen move d to Celt ic whi le Steven Whittaker was sold to Rangers, reuniting with Thomson after his January switch to Ibrox.
Stewart and Sproule were also moved on but Collins didn’t last much longer himself, resigning in December as he cited a lack of financial backing from Petrie.
Given that he brought in almost £ 9million from sales, Collins might have had a point but maybe
Petrie was wise not to hand too much money to the man who bought Yves Makalambay for
£100,000.