Maxwell taught to ‘stop making saves’ by Southall
● Hibs No 1 learned from Welsh legend that organising defence was key to clean sheets
As a youngster Chris Maxwell was told that if he was making saves, he was not doing his job properly.
The sage advice came from Neville Southall, a man he admired greatly, and it gave the Hibernian goalkeeper something to chew over as he made his way in the game.
“I am lucky enough to be from the same area of Wales Neville Southall is from and he told me as a kid: ‘If you’re saving shots, then you’re not doing your job properly’. I asked why and he said: ‘If you’re organising the boys in front of you, you’re taking crosses, you’re keeping the ball and you’re sweeping up behind… then you don’t have to save shots. And if you’re not saving shots, they’re not scoring goals’. It was as simple as that.
“He used to come to our boys club ceremonies and give us trophies and he was heavily involved in the Welsh set-up for years and years when I was young. Every month 20 goalkeepers aged 15 and under would go down to Cardiff and he would work with us there.
“He was a hero of mine. He was unorthodox in the way he did things. But he had a massive work ethic towards his practice, which is something I have always looked up to.
“That’s something the managers and players I have come across who had been in a dressing room with him have all tried to impress on me.”
At Hibs, Maxwell has been working at developing that understanding with a back line that has been chopped and changed due to injuries and suspensions. But with a quarter of the season gone and the club still in the lower reaches of the table, they are looking to set down a solid foundation from which they can build when the welcome Ross County to Easter Road today. And he is unperturbed if that means he does not need to pull off headline-grabbing saves.
“The 18-year-old me would have said that I want to make loads of saves. But now I would rather win every week and not have to touch the ball,” he said. “It’s not about me, it’s not about any individual, it’s about the team winning and getting the three points.
“I really believe in communication and organisation with the players in front of you. We all have to do that with every position on the pitch because it makes the job easier.”
As Maxwell works to keep things tight at the back, there is an ongoing issue with finding their way through at the other end and that has hampered the side in recent outings, as chances are created but, too frequently, squandered.
It has piled extra pressure on Maxwell and the defence, who have let leads slip in several games so far, costing them points. But with three games in the coming week, culminating with the League Cup semifinal against Celtic next weekend, there is the opportunity to turn things around, according to Maxwell.
“Hand on heart there are no boys in our dressing room who believe we are on a slippery slope,” he said. “We all believe we are turning it around and one win will sort it out. This next week is a massive opportunity for us, I can’t stress that enough.”
Ross Draper, meanwhile, insists there is no chance of a lingering effect from Ross County’s 6-0 thrashing by Celtic last weekend. “Morale in the squad is always high,” said the midfielder. “We make sure we don’t get too low when we get beat or too high when we win. The boys are grounded. We know last weekend’s performance wasn’t good enough and we get the chance to right the wrongs. The spirit in the squad never changes.”
Michael Smith likens Hearts’ last trip to the Tony Macaroni Arena to the Battle of the Alamo and says the memory of being peppered by five goals that night still hurts.
That mauling, in December, put paid to the squad’s plans for a Christmas night out in Prague, as they opted to instead stay at home and try to right their poor form. But the experienced defender said no-one was feeling particularly festive after gifting their opponents so many openings.
“We had a meeting on the bus straight after the game and said ‘there’s no way we can go after that!’ It would have looked bad and we wanted to get some extra training in. It was an easy decision. I wouldn’t have been in the right mood to go away and have a fun weekend after that.”
Time has not eased the pain of that humiliation.
“It’s one of our darkest days as a team and I think it was my darkest day in football,” said the Northern Ireland full-back, who has been impressing as a stand-in centre back in recent weeks. “It was a terrible night for us. We didn’t play well at all and just collapsed. I wouldn’t say we owe them one but we’ll certainly be remembering that scoreline when we go back there.
“We collapsed and we hid. Once they scored and Arnaud [Djoum] was sent off, from that point it was like the Alamo. We just couldn’t get out and couldn’t seem to do anything about it. Maybe we should have tried to keep the score down and get out of there with a 2-0. However,
it happened and, although I wouldn’t say we are better for it, you remember results like that and it stands you in good stead for other performances.
“We owe it to ourselves to compete a lot better, and we owe the fans a better performance. Hopefully they will come in their numbers and we can put on a show for them.”
The Gorgie side have had a difficult start to the season and sit third bottom, four points behind Gary Holt’s men, who occupy seventh spot. A positive performance against Rangers last weekend, to earn a draw, has bolstered belief, according to Smith, but he knows that a similar level of competitiveness will be needed in West Lothian today.
“There’s definitely no chance we’ll underestimate this! I said to Whelo [Glenn Whelan] that this will be one of the toughest games he’s had in Scotland – if not the toughest.
“It’s tough to go there. They know how to play on that surface, they are aggressive and win second balls. They beat Celtic 2-0 so no-one can underestimate them. They play some good football as well. I like the boys in the middle of the park, they are decent footballers.”
Livingston midfielder Keaghan Jacobs believes Hearts’ tenth place in the table is irrelevant, having picked up only one victory in their opening nine league games.
He said: “They’re still a really good team. They’ve not got off to a great start but you can’t be looking at a game against Hearts from their league position, you’ve got to look at them for the team they are. We go in with the same mentality as every week. We work on our own strengths, get in their faces and hopefully get the result.”