LOST CAUSE

Darren McGregor admits Hibs’ under-achieving players must look in the mirror and ask themselves why they are such a pale reflection of last season’s side.

Gutted gaffer Neil Lennon has been suspended by the club after making his feelings clear to a side languishing in the Premiership’s bottom six – a huge 13 points off the Europa League spots.

It is all a far cry from last season when the Easter Road outfit were a top-four team and playing a brand of football that was pleasing on the eye.

They have won just three of their last 15 games before today’s trip to face bottom side St Mirren and defender McGregor (right) insists that has to change – and quickly.

He said: “We really all need to take a good, hard look at ourselves.

“Standards have dropped from last season. We’re sitting eighth in the league, which doesn’t make pretty reading for the supporters.

“We’re well aware that we’re under-achieving and we need to rectify it quickly.

“It’s painful to say it, but we Stephen McGinn admits St Mirren’s season has been a disaster, but insists they’ll only get out of trouble by being ballers, not bawlers.

The Saints skipper has been tempted to give both barrels to some team-mates as his side have slid to the bottom spot.

But, as Neil Lennon has found to his cost, the tactic once used to inspire him as a kid is a thing of the past.

McGinn revealed boss Oran Kearney sets the dressing-room tone with the volume dialled down.

Saints face Hibs today and McGinn (right) said: “This season has been a bit of a disaster but the boss is not a bawler or shouter, he’s very calm.

“You might expect it to be different, and touching on the Alloa game in the Scottish Cup last week, he was excellent at half-time when we were 2-0 down and we were delighted we pulled that result out for him.

“All he did was come in and say ‘Look, worst thing that happens here is you go out the Cup, but we’ll have a go’.

“He showed us a few things he wanted from us on the board, have to keep believing and go again. Confidence has taken a knock and you can see it. “Guys who normally look to drive forward, break lines and produce crisp passing aren’t quite at it. “That goes for myself as well. When you give away sloppy goals, like we’ve been doing, you give teams something to hang on to and then it’s difficult to claw it back. “The commitment and energy levels have to go up. “It’s hard to win games when you’re only at half mast. “We wanted to emulate last season’s fourth place but that looks a bit rich at the moment. “Right now it’s just about getting the next win. ” That won’t be easy against a Buddies side desperately battling to stay in the top flight. As he prepared to face his old club, McGregor said: “It’s a massive game for us. “They’ll be fighting for their lives but we have to match that. “We will need the work rate and aggression, which has maybe been lacking.” and thankfully it worked.” McGinn is convinced the days of teacups and expletives flying around your ears in equal measure are now gone. In his career, he played alongside veteran voices like Andy Millen, John Eustace and Neill Collins, none of whom were scared to tell you where you were going wrong. But now with the armband himself, he said: “It’s something that’s almost gone out of the game now. “As the captain, I don’t feel like young players respond if I’m giving them it tight. “It’s something I had 12 or 13 years ago when I was in their position and I had to find ways to respond to it. “But I have had to find ways to speak to them differently to what I was used to. “That’s society these days and in modern football it just doesn’t work any more. It’s probably not a bad thing either.” McGinn, 30, admits Saints have to find stability in a hurry. He said: “It will be close, but we’re trying to gel as a team.”

“You tell me – is that good enough for Celtic? They’re not doing their jobs properly. They’ve pulled the wool over a lot of people’s eyes. It’s been a shambolic season. Let’s not mince our words.” He hasn’t since. That was in 2010, after just the third game of Neil Lennon’s dugout career, in the wake of the humiliation of seeing the Celtic side he was caretaking losing 2- 0 to Ross County in the Scottish Cup.

Sitting in the near-silent atmosphere vacuum that is the Hampden lecture theatre, he delivered his first managerial evisceration of a team and its individuals.

He was calm, composed, eloquent – but no less vitriolic for it.

All because he had a set of standards and he wasn’t prepared to accept that anyone around him should settle for less than what he stood for.

In some ways, it’s reassuring he hasn’t changed. Why shrink to fit?

Why throw a blanket on your passion and ambition when its existence is what should make you tick? Just because others don’t want to follow doesn’t mean you shouldn’t want to lead.

The ability to evolve has always been the hallmark of the greats, though – and whether our generation like it or not, the old school is wheezing its final breaths.

Stick and carrot are no longer the only two tools required. But it would appear Lennon has taken his players to the woodshed with the former once too often.

Some could handle it. Some reacted exactly how he’d want them to.

Two years ago he did it when Hibs were seven points clear in the Championship in their promotion season, branding them unprofessional and a disgrace after a 1-1 draw at Raith.

John McGinn came out later and said he was laughing at the public execution they’d received on the radio – because what they got in private was a lot worse.

Last May, he dismantled his players as amateurs and threatened to quit in the wake of a derby defeat that cost them the chance to finish second in the league. The week after, Steven Whittaker – a guy who’s been there, seen it and worn the teacups in dressing-rooms under managers like Bobby Williamson and Walter Smith – admitted Lennon was well within his rights.

But after that game, this column read the tea leaves. When he praises, he lavishes. When he criticises, he torches.

And while it’s hard to disagree with him at times, it’s a risky strategy in an age where players are less inclined to react in a way that says “I’ll show him” and more inclined to curl up in the foetal position and speed dial the club’s human resources department on their mobile.

As it turns out, they went straight to the chief exec. And as John Collins will tell you, when that happens, there’s no way back for you in a dressing-room with no vestige of trust, either way.

Lennon’s problems will have been exacerbated, though, by the fact that not only did he challenge his players,