Paul praises the punters who want him out
Paul Heckingbottom praised the disgruntled Hibs supporters – despite some of them calling for him to go.
The Yorkshire man promised that changes will be made in the Easter Road ranks after watching his side lose 3-0 at Motherwell.
There has been increasing disquiet about Heckingbottom’s regime among the fans and they booed last weekend when the manager decided to replace Scott Allan in the draw against St Johnstone.
A section of the away support began calling for him to go when Hibs went two behind at Fir Park.
Heckingbottom said: “You are going to get stick because you are in charge, that’s the nature of the job.
“You don’t get carried away when they are chanting your name and you don’t get carried away when you’re getting booed.
“I thought the fans were great. I could hear them all game.
“It’s obvious what we need to change and how we need to do it.
“We’re short in key positions, you can see that.
“We’re stretched in fullback areas and I know for a fact Motherwell will have tried to exploit that.”
Hibs currently sit ninth in the Premiership table and have recorded only one league victory.
A lack of steel displeased the manager.
There seems no prospect of him walking away from his post. He is already looking ahead to future transfer windows.
He said: “One v one situations went wrong for us. A pretty team got dominated at key moments. It happened in our box and their box.
“You’ve all heard the saying that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
“We worked hard but we were too easy to play against.
“Most of the players were here last year when we weren’t getting beaten.
“Some are underperforming. We have enough time now to stress that on the players but it can’t just be for the next game.
“It will improve, without a doubt.
“It will be reflected in the teams we pick, it will be reflected in the business we do in the next windows.
“You might play pretty stuff and have a halfdecent season, but we want better than that.”
Heckingbottom admitted the fans could not be blamed for being dispirited as Hibs’ challenge faded away yesterday.
He went on: “They probably thought at 1-0 down, as we did on the bench, that we were in the ascendency and it was coming.
“But we didn’t have enough shots for the situations we got in.
“When we did, it didn’t goourway.
“They were better than us in the final third.”