Helpless Hibs liable to slide, says Blackley

HOW dearly Hibs would love a player of John Blackley’s calibre in their current plight. Sadly for all concerned, the Easter Road legend can now only watch on with ever-increasing worry. The former Scotland defender offered a bleak assessment yesterday when quizzed on the immediate prospects for his first footballing love. He is far from optimistic about the prospects of success in the two-legged relegation play-off that now confronts Terry Butcher’s side. A positive outlook is, after all, difficult to muster in the wake of an appalling sequence of just one win in 19 games. ‘Well, they have no goals and they keep giving goals away,’ said Blackley, who started and finished his playing career at Hibs before becoming manager in the mid-1980s. ‘It’s a recipe for disaster. ‘Where are they going to get their next win? They’ve got to try to get it over the next two games. It is going to be very difficult for them to stay up. ‘And there’s no guarantee they’d come straight back up because the Championship is going to be a very competitive league next year. ‘There’s Hearts, Rangers and possibly Dunfermline. Only two teams will have the chance to get out of it. ‘It’s just really sad. I feel sorry for the loyal Hibs fans. Over the last few years they’ve not had a great deal to shout about.’ Whatever happens, Blackley believes the Hibs hierarchy must retain faith in Butcher. The brief bounce supplied by the former England captain is now the most distant of memories after a desperate slide. Blackley, though, is adamant the players must accept responsibility — and face a clear-out as Butcher brings in his own men. ‘I really do think Terry and Maurice Malpas are the men for the job,’ he said. ‘But they’ve got to have time to make changes. There has to be change at Hibs — they’ve done nothing for a number of years. ‘There is a failing in the group and you have to look at the players.’ Blackley also expressed dismay at the news Hearts had dispensed with the services of Gary Locke in a fairly brutal fashion and hopes for more patience in Leith. ‘Terry has not become a bad manager over the last few months,’ he said. ‘He has maybe been an unlucky manager and made a few bad decisions, but he has to be given time.’ The loss of Leigh Griffiths has proved an even greater blow to Hibs than could have been imagined last summer. A lack of forward firepower has been the greatest of their many failings this season, with the £200,000 Pat Fenlon spent on James Collins paying precious little dividend. ‘You can look at Kilmarnock and ask, what would have happened to them if you take Kris Boyd out,’ argued Blackley. ‘He’s scored 22 goals. Hibs lost Griffiths and they’ve not replaced him. They tried to replace him with Collins, but he isn’t a proven goalscorer like Griffiths and Boyd.’