SHAPE UP OR SHIP OUT
Parker warns Hibs players to get their act together or they’ll be axed
IF Garry Parker is good cop to Neil Lennon’s bad cop, what must the Hibernian squad be enduring at the moment? As they seek to end their seven-game winless run away to Hamilton Accies tomorrow, the Easter Road men travel west with fresh warnings ringing in their ears.
Either they pull themselves out of this tailspin. Or they’ll find some ready-made replacements arriving when the transfer window reopens just weeks from now.
Assistant manager Parker, still standing in for Lennon on media duties yesterday, was in no mood to mollycoddle a bunch of underachieving players.
‘Of course they’re playing for their futures,’ he declared. ‘If you’re not performing, you don’t play. And, if we have to bring in players, they’ll be under pressure. Like we are. So we need to do something about it.’
Expanding on the need to reinforce next month, Parker (below) said: ‘We know what sort of players we need to bring in to play the type of football that we want to play.
‘At the moment, we don’t have the players to play the pressing game the way we did last season — and we need to get back to that.
‘We may be talking about a few new players. We’ll need to speak to the board and, hopefully, get backed. We do need to improve and we do need a better squad.
‘In the meantime, the guys here need to respond because we’re not winning games. They’ve got to do it.’
The Hibs players were called to another meeting with Lennon and Parker yesterday morning as the coaching duo sought to shake them out of their recent funk.
Having previously taken a softly-softly approach to team morale, there is now a harder edge to their demands.
Explaining how the chemistry of their double act works, Parker said: ‘Oh, Neil is definitely the scarier. I try to keep it calm. But recently it’s been getting to me. I’ve not slept for a couple of weeks now, because these results are doing my head in.
‘We came here, got us out of the Championship, finished fourth (in the Premiership) last season — but we’ve gone backwards.
‘We pull individual players aside when we need to, speak to them, give them a rollicking or whatever it takes.
‘Obviously, it has not been working. But hopefully that will change. ‘We have meetings as a team. The message is that everybody makes mistakes, so what? You’re a midfielder, you give the ball away, so get it again and try the next pass. It might create a goal. ‘In the meeting, it was us talking as coaches. But, over the last few days, (the players) have also been speaking. ‘Results and performances caused our patience to snap. If they’re not doing what’s required time and again, then you have to take the harder approach.’ Florian Kamberi was hooked early in the second half of the home draw with St Mirren in midweek, Parker making it clear afterwards that the switch was nothing to do with an injury — and everything to do with his performance. The Swiss striker, so great for Hibs during last season’s loan spell, simply hasn’t reached the same heights this term.
‘You could say the same about Flo and Jamie Maclaren,’ added Parker. ‘Last season, they were brilliant for us. We brought them back, so everybody was happy — and we started off alright.
‘But at the moment, they’re going through a bad patch, so we must turn that round. Everybody must put in 100 per cent.
‘We can see a difference. He (Kamberi) trained okay today, we’ve spoken to him and some of the players have spoken to him.
‘It’s not just him, it’s everybody — from defence all the way through. We’re a team and we just need to turn it around.
‘Flo’s an important player to us. When he’s up front and he’s on it, putting himself about, he’s a threat. He needs to get back to doing that.’
Martin Canning will be hoping Kamberi’s season doesn’t spark into life today. The Accies boss is concerned enough by the severity of his team’s defeats, with their most recent a 4-0 loss to bottom club Dundee on Wednesday night.
Hamilton’s biggest beating this campaign was the 6-0 defeat to today’s opponents on October 6. Since then, they’ve lost 4-1 to Rangers, 3-0 to Aberdeen and Celtic, and 4-0 to St Johnstone.
Canning, whose side remain five points ahead of Dundee, said: ‘It’s been a strange season. When we’ve lost, we’ve lost heavily. Last season, we were competitive in pretty much every game but now we’re either winning or not competing well enough. That game at Hibs was a classic example.
‘We must get to the bottom of that. You’re going to lose games but to lose them 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, that can’t keep happening.’
It looks like a good time for Accies to be facing a surprisingly vulnerable-looking Hibs, but Canning isn’t buying it.
‘They have too much quality,’ he said. ‘They’re a good side and will be looking for a reaction — but we’ll be looking for one as well.’