Beleaguered Hibs and Dons prove there’s no divine right to contend
hosting Aberdeen in the WRONG half of the Scottish Premiership proves that no team can simply expect to compete at the business end of the table, according to Easter Road gaffer Nick Montgomery. And he points to repeated relegations suffered by big-spending English clubs as proof that money never won a game of football.
Monty accepts that Hibs underperformed in missing out on a place in the top six by conceding a late equaliser in their final pre-split fixture. And he sympathises with Dons fans who have suffered through a season of turmoil that has left the once-mighty Reds a point adrift of the Hibees.
As the pair prepare to meet at Easter Road on Sunday, Monty said the example of Birmingham City – who have just dropped into England’s League One – is a reminder of what can happen regardless of budgets and best intentions, the Yorkshireman insisting: “I don’t think there is any divine right, in any league in the world, to be in a certain position. We play games so you can earn the right to be there.
“You only have to look at some of the big clubs down south who have dropped down the leagues. Yeah, Birmingham City are an example. Look at the money spent by some of these clubs, the challenges they’ve faced in terms of stability in consistency, you see nobody has a right to be anywhere.
“You’re talking about a big club in Aberdeen. They’ve spent a lot of money, put a squad together to play in European competitions. But they find themselves in the bottom six, like us. And like us, they’ll be trying to finish this season strongly, then have some sort of, I don’t want to say rebuild, but a chance to prepare for next season.”
Hibs bounced back from the heartbreak of missing out on the top six by beating St Johnstone in Perth in their first post-split fixture, only to suffer another dramatic late loss against Ross County in the Highlands last weekend. With Montgomery under pressure to improve results, the home side arguably need to win their three remaining fixtures – Motherwell at home on Wednesday night and then Livingston away next Sunday round off the campaign – in order to quell chatter about more managerial change.
And to do that, they will require resilience of a kind displayed by Borussia Dortmund against Paris St Germain in Tuesday night’s Champions League semi-final. Like millions of other football fans around the world, Montgomery watched in admiration as the German side’s yellow wall repelled everything PSG could throw at them. The positional discipline and teamwork of Edin Terzic’s side was a thing of beauty, to anyone with an interest in tactics and tacticians.
Beyond the X-and-O jottings of Terzic’s masterplan, however, something else stood out in the fixture: a dogged determination in the Dortmund ranks. A refusal to yield in the face of unrelenting pressure.
If Montgomery doesn’t pretend that his under-performing Hibs team can exactly emulate that sort of competitive ferocity, he’s absolutely determined to address the frailties so evident in a season of late goals conceded and points scattered to the four winds. If that means bringing in a sports psychologist to help his players deal with the pressure of representing Hibs, then that’s what he’ll do.
“Resilience is a big word,” said Monty. “Putting it into practice takes time and effort. We talk here about mental skills and building a mental framework.
“Some players develop it at a young age. And you can improve it, for sure. But some players struggle with resilience, the ability to deal with pressure and expectation. Some cope with it really well.
“It’s a case of improving the players who struggle with it. And we’ve had a real lack of consistency on that throughout the season. It’s something we can try to address in training. Ultimately, it’s a process you have to go through, with no easy shortcut.
“So it’s a great word, resilience. A great word. You can talk about the late goals we’ve conceded, people can call it game management, resilience, decision making. These are all things that, when you step on the pitch as a player, in those moments, that’s when you have to grab hold of games and see them out.”
Montgomery, who inherited a huge mess when he replaced Lee Johnson in September, added: “I would like to bring in a sports psychologist. Obviously coming in midHibs season, it’s hard to implement stuff. But I’m a big believer in sports performance, sports psychology. It’s really important in the modern game – because there is so much negativity around. The players have to deal with negativity all the time. Having that positive mindset allows you to focus on the task ahead, which is winning a game of football, not getting caught up in all the noise that surrounds being an elite athlete these days.”
I’m a big believer in sports performance, sports psychology