Stubbs: We will make critics eat their words
HE doesn’t take much notice of the headlines. And he cannot possibly agree with t he familiar ‘same old Hibs’ jibe which conditions supporters into believing that falling agonisingly short is just part of their club’s DNA.
Even as his team’s Championship title challenge lies in tatters, Alan Stubbs adopts a definite air of defiance, declaring: ‘If people are saying we have crashed, then we must have crashed to get to the League Cup Final and we must have crashed to get to the Scottish Cup quarter-final.
‘You can’t have it both ways. It’s a good job I don’t listen to people. People are there to write what they want. It doesn’t affect me. It’s there as a headline or whatever. Since I’ve arrived here, we have done OK.’
Directly addressing the fact that it’s a large proportion of the Hibs support, not just pundits and the Press, who have grown to believe in the legend of a team forever snatching disaster from the jaws of glory, the manager added: ‘With everything in life, it’ s about changing the perceptions people have of you.
‘That’s what you have to do. We’ve tried to do that during my time at the club and we’ve had some success at doing it.
‘It is a process you have to keep working towards. Let’s see if these people are saying the same things at the end of the season.
‘It’s the first time we’ve lost back-to-back games since the season started five months ago, so we’re still doing OK.’
Doing OK, as Stubbs puts it, is not what Hibs fans expected as recently as a week ago. Before their team shipped six goals in consecutive defeats to Morton and Dumbarton, supporters were actually being encouraged to dream of a fairytale league and League Cup Double. Maybe even a Treble, given a few overdue lucky bounces along the way in the Scottish Cup.
In Dumfries tonight, they absolutely must beat Queen of the South, not only to stay at least within 11 points of leaders Rangers, but also to fend off a challenge from third-placed Falkirk, now just two points adrift of second.
Asked if he was now looking over his shoulder, Stubbs insisted: ‘No. No. I’ve not looked over my shoulder, to be honest, since the season started.
‘We’re obviously aware of what’s going on. But we just keep doing what we know we can do. The rest doesn’t make any difference.
‘No one is even thinking about fourth or third. We’re just thinking about our next game. There is a long way to go yet. I think we’ve got 10 games in the league yet, other games in the cups.
‘So we’re not even thinking about the end of the season and the permutations of where we finish, what games we’re going to play. There is still a lot of football to be played before we even get to that.
‘We haven’t had a lot in between games to work on, because we’ve been playing Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday. So the players haven’t been doing an awful lot.
‘But I’m actually glad we’ve got a game tomorrow. Some people might have wanted a rest — but not me. And, looking at the players and what I’m detecting from them, not them, either.
‘They’re disappointed and they should be. But they’ll get over it.
‘In this league, even though some people just expect us to turn up and win games, it’s not as easy as that, unfortunately.
‘If they were sitting in this chair, they would probably appreciate that a bit more. But we’ve got to go to Queen of the South tomorrow night and we have got to get three points.’
With Paul Hanlon awaiting results of a scan on a knee/thigh injury that forced him off after an hour on Saturday, Stubbs may have to shuffle a defence that has looked anything but solid in the past two games — a considerable turnaround, given the reputation for miserliness built up earlier in the season.
Darren McGregor, a member of the back four in both of the recent defeats, cannot honestly avoid the suspicion that the most dreaded of curses to afflict any team going well — complacency — was at least a contributing factor in these consecutive shocks to the system.
The former Rangers defender admitted: ‘If you look at the goals we’ve lost, it’s very uncharacteristic of us. Maybe there is an element of complacency going into games and maybe not doing things how we did them in the past.
‘Maybe also expecting to turn up to games and win.
‘But we all know in football that, if you just turn up to a game expecting to win, with an element of complacency, then you can be hurt. And I think that’s been proven i n the l ast couple of games.
‘I think the confidence does naturally take a knock when you concede three goals f or two games on the bounce. But the measure of a good team and good individual players is how quickly you gather yourself and get that confidence back. I’ve got the belief we can do that.’
HIBS staff and players have joined forces with health website Living It Up to walk 500 miles — and they’re challenging fans to walk 500 more. Supporters can pick up free pedometers on match days from a pop-up stall in the stadium, then add their mileage to the supporters’ total on Livingitup.org.uk/ 500miles