Hendo ready to run the show
Prospect now realises he must make real impact
TAM McMANUS, nearly man, sat with me all through my playing career and I only have myself to blame for not shaking off that tag.
A kid who was top scorer for Hibs in one campaign but didn’t sustain it. Had I followed it up with another season of goals I’d have flown far higher – but I didn’t. Truth was I was never fit enough, I couldn’t play 90 minutes and it all caught up with me.
Every close-season I would get a training programme for the time off but I stuck it in a drawer and went on holiday.
I hated running. I’d do nothing and then the week before we were due back to training I’d run a lap of a public park and believe that would do me.
Unfulfilled potential and a huge regret. I coach kids at Braidhurst High School and it’s the boys with the best attitudes rather than ability who I back to make it. It’s mental but true.
It’s why I hate to see talent not reach the heights it merits and why I’ve been delighted by the recent impact at Hibs of Ewan Henderson.
I was disappointed with him last season but he’s come back this summer looking the part.
Only one goal to show for the last campaign and a player who is so much better than a bit-part performer in and out of the side.
It wasn’t on show last season but he certainly capable looks of being crucial to Hibs this term
For an attacking midfielder he did nowhere near enough and that needs to change.
In football there are no second chances but he looks a completely different player in the last few weeks. His aim has to become one of the first names new boss Lee Johnson scribbles on his team sheet.
He’s started this campaign like a man on a mission and on fire. I thought his display when he came on at half-time against Falkirk was excellent.
Hibs were dominant after the break and that was due to the impact of Henderson.
A better end product, his final pass and goal ratio all have to improve and on Sunday against Bonnyrigg we saw what he’s capable of when he gets himself up among the strikers.
Take away his two superb goals and you still saw a guy who can be the top man at Easter Road if he believes in himself and the penny drops.
He has terrific feet, that was shown with his first goal on Sunday. His second was a superb finish fired into the postage stamp. It’s form everyone has been crying out for Henderson to show.
It wasn’t on show last season but he certainly looks capable of being crucial to Hibs this term. But it has to be sustained. He needs to step up and be a man. He’s 22, you aren’t a young boy forever.
This is a player who’s played for Celtic and scored for them in Europe so his time is now.
To be the top man at Hibs he needs to demand the ball and be the creative No.10 who does it week in and week out by scoring and creating goals.
Last season he was too safe. Maybe the manager has had a word and told him he needs to shoot more. When you’re a young boy at a big club and get a chance, all you want to do is to stay in the side.
There also comes a point when a player like Henderson needs to show he can run the game for Hibs. He’s more than capable of doing it. He has it all in his locker and he needs to be the man.
Hibs asserted themselves immediately against Bonnyrigg and scoring in the first few minutes made it a fairly comfortable afternoon. Make no mistake, after losing to Falkirk in their last game, an emphatic win was a must and they delivered. That defeat to the Bairns was nowhere near good enough and is a dirty mark on what has been a decent last few weeks for new manager Johnson and his revamped squad. No matter who you are, you can’t afford to just turn up and think you can perform for 45 minutes and it’ll be good enough. At New Dundas Park they were at it from start to finish. Now they must follow that up against Morton tomorrow.