Heckingbottom wants players to pull up sleeves or face axe
HIBERNIAN head coach Paul Heckingbottom has warned his players they face being dropped from the team unless they prove they are capable of rolling up their sleeves and winning ugly.
So furious were some sections of the travelling support after the 3-0 defeat at Motherwell on their last outing that they called for the 42-yearold to stand down; however, former Leeds United and Barnsley manager Heckingbottom, whose side have amassed four points from as many Ladbrokes Premiership games, insists it is up to the players to show a different side to their game.
Heckingbottom said: “I said after the Motherwell game that we looked like a pretty team who got beat. We want to be able to win games and perform consistently.
“We’ve won one [against St Mirren] when we’ve been by far the best team and we’ve lost one against Motherwell where we passed the ball well but still got hammered. You can’t blame the guys in defence as it all starts from the front.
“I speak to the players regularly, that if you make three mistakes in a row you’re going to concede a goal. We need to get back to, ‘I’ve made a mistake but my mate behind covers for me; I make a mistake, my mate behind can’t cover it but the goalkeeper saves it’. Not everyone will be comfortable doing that. If you’re not comfortable doing it you’re going to limit you’re game time.”
Heckingbottom, whose side travel to Kilmarnock tomorrow, also concedes that part of the reason for their underwhelming start could be down to the fact that seven of his 10 new summer arrivals had no previous experience of the Scottish game.
Heckingbottom added: “The Scottish game is different and there are that many variations of how people play for such a small league with 12 teams.
“It’s refereed differently, it is a different product. You’re just crossing the border so it’s not like playing abroad but it’s a totally different type of football, just like if you were going across to the continent.
“There are those adaptations but that’s all they are, it’s still the same game.”