Choose strife
Heck: Even Trainspotting author’s giving me stick but I’ve been under pressure in this game since I was 7, that’s football
IT’S a sure sign Hibs have gone off the rails when the guy who gave us Trainspotting is leading calls for the manager to get off at the next stop.
Famous Hibee Irvine Welsh didn’t miss Paul Heckingbottom in the wake of Sunday’s Edinburgh derby defeat but he was far from alone as the Easter Road support turned on the gaffer.
The best-selling author tweeted: “I could round up a squad of jakeys from any Leith boozer who would have more fight, purpose, organisation and tactics than this totally dire Hibs team.”
The Proclaimers have yet to pitch in their thoughts but either way, Heckingbottom, it’s Grim Time On Leith. But while BY MICHAEL GANNON the manager admitted it hurts to see punters protest outside the stadium, he is convinced his side are still on the right track.
He said: “There is a pride. It helps when you understand the club and the fans. It’s important to be in the area and to see and feel it.
“It is always different at the stadium, at the match, when emotions are high and you have to stand up and be the focal point of it, good and bad.
“So it’s not belittling everything or ignoring everything but you can’t get carried away when people say good things about you or when people say bad things.
“As much as it hurts your pride, you’ve got feelings, your family hears it so it’s not nice.
“But it’s something that is part of the job and you have to detach yourself from it so you can do it properly and not take it personally.
“That’s how fans talk, everybody wants their team to be successful but not every one can. There are too many teams to finish first and second and third and someone is always going to miss out. Some will always overachieve and some will underachieve. So I’m not worried in that respect.
“I’m always pushing and wanting more and if we go on a run of winning games or we go on a cup run or in two months’ time we are sitting here and the points tally has gone up the questions will be different.
“There will be a different feel but it will not be any different to us in here in terms of how much we want to win and want to get better.
“We’ve lost three games so we can’t be on the right trajectory but in terms of what we’re trying to do, yeah, I fully believe in it. Fully.”
Heckingbottom reckons his
summer recruits are still getting to grips with the intensity of Scottish football.
That’s why barely any of them can get a sniff of a start at present but the same could be said about the manager.
The former Leeds and Barnsley boss is no stranger to the demands of the job though and he insisted he has the character and experience to ride out the storm.
Heckingbottom said: “There is scrutiny but it’s everywhere.
“I remember one question in my first few games. We’d been on TV four of the first six games or something and someone said, ‘How are you finding it?’
“I just had to laugh. I had come from Leeds where I’d been on Sky every single week. There is an intensity to the game as well. But that’s what football is. It’s not new to me. You have that from seven or eight years old, everyone judging you.
“If you choose to come and sit in this seat, it probably gets worse. If you’re not accepting of that and seeing it as part of the job, it’s going to catch you out.”
Heckingbottom takes the flak on the chin but it doesn’t mean he’s not boiling in the background.
He understands the fan rage. He feels it too – and is demanding his players get fuming as well.
Heckingbottom said: “I’d guess they are feeling frustration, disappointment.
“I want to see more anger and then display that in our performances. If they’re not as frustrated as I am at the little lapses in concentration that cost them a derby win they should probably not be playing the game. “I’m not sure how much tension there’s been, there should be tension, some friction, edge to how we work.” Heckingbottom is aware beating Kilmarnock in the Betfred Cup tonight would dial down the tension a notch. And he added: “It’s a huge game. I wouldn’t say it’s any easier, it just becomes the most important.”