Angry Heck has a blast at Hibees boo boys
Paul Heckingbottom last night urged Hibs fans to cut out the criticism after their furious reaction to the draw with St Johnstone.
The booing of unhappy Hibees was impossible to ignore throughout the second half – and notably greeted the substitution of Scott Allan an hour into the contest. Hibs were 1-0 up at the time.
And Heckingbottom reckons the punters’ negativity fed into his team’s timid second- half performance.
“I didn’t know there was a law against taking him off,” he said of Allan’s removal.
“No player’s going to play 90 minutes every game.
“I’ve worked with Scott all week and know what he’s been like. He’s not been at his best.
“He’s played 120 minutes last week and was carrying a knock.
“I didn’t bring him off because he was injured, but he was suffering.
“We all know what a good player Scott is and we all know he’s a fans’ favourite but I’ll probably take him off again before the end of the season.
“It’ll happen again but the reaction doesn’t need to be there.
“We brought two international footballers on as subs. An Irish international and a Lithuanian international. “We should’ve been good enough to win the game, without a doubt, but it’s the way that we drew… .” Heckingbottom insisted he had no desire to see Hibs fans pull back on their levels of passion for the club. However, he called on them to channel it more positively.
“It was disappointing,” he said. “The whole stadium was anxious and that spread to the players. “We are drawing at home and we will draw many more at home. It doesn’t help the players – 100%.”
He added: “I think they need to encourage more.. “I dont want them to draw back, because you want you want to feel the stadium alive.
“I did as a player and I still like that now, but you could see that we were trying to calm them and tell them to stay calm and relax but anxiety was an issue.”
Going forward, Heckingbottom wants to see his players deal better with any criticism that may still come their way, either from the stands or elsewhere.
“They need to be tougher and get used to it,” he said.
“Everyone wants to play at the top level. As you go up, the scrutiny gets higher and is part of your job, whether it’s unfair or not.
“I look at some Premier League players and I g u a ra n t e e they’ll be ignoring all that’s written and said about them, to focus on their team.”