Robertson: Emotion key to survival
Edinburgh side must show ‘strong stuff’
WHEN they are being asked if their team is in danger of being relegated, players have a tendency to be unthinkingly upbeat, offering the issue no illumination whatsoever.
It is more instructive to put the questions to Scott Robertson at Hibernian than to most others because he has been through it before and is not likely to airbrush the gravity of the situation his club is in. Robertson can recognise the signs of a team in trouble. He was a young player in the Dundee team which finished bottom of the Scottish Premier League in 2004/05, having lived in the shadow of relegation for most of that campaign.
Hibs’ descent has been different: dramatic but swift. Until the turn of the year, when Robertson succumbed to a knee injury which ruled him out until the Edinburgh derby last Sunday, their aspiration was to finish in the top six, not to be worried about falling out of the top 10. Now 29, the midfielder who was capped twice by Scotland six years ago, knows the seriousness of their situation but does not recognise similarities between Dundee 2005 and his current employers, who face Partick Thistle at Easter Road this afternoon.
Dundee went down when they were unable to beat Livingston on the final day of that season, drawing 1-1 at Almondvale. Robertson came on as a late substitute. “I have experience of relegation. People lost their jobs. It’s up to us to avoid that,” he said.
“The last game of that season was too big a game for me [he had just turned 20 at the time] so the manager, Jim Duffy, put me on the bench. I don’t want another day of last-day nerves. When players are playing with emotion, that’s when you get the best or worst out of people.
“It depends which emotion. If it’s fear then people hide. If it’s real desire to go and do your best, that’s when you see the best of people. It’s not fear. It’s about going out to prove people wrong. That’s when you see who is made of the strong stuff and that’s what we need this weekend.”
After Thistle this afternoon Hibs face Ross County in Dingwall on Tuesday then Kilmarnock in Leith a week today. “We’re on a really bad run but we’ve already beaten the three teams we’ve still to face this season,” said Robertson.
“We need to do what we need to do to win the games. We’ve been dragged in because of recent results but there’s three games to go. We’re still in the position where it’s just up to us and what we do. That’s the positive outlook.
“I don’t feel there are similarities with Dundee. That whole season we played with the threat of automatic relegation. At Hibs, until six weeks ago we were chasing the top six and at one point we were closing in on Dundee United in fifth. Since then we haven’t picked up enough points to stay in touch with those teams. We’ve been on a bit of a downward spiral. With a little bit of luck it’s got to turn.”
For now Hibs remains a curiosity to Conrad Balatoni, the Thistle defender, despite a childhood spent in Edinburgh. He moved to the capital at a young age and was given an education on the stature of the club from the north-east of the city, first as a schoolboy and later as a member of the youth teams at Hearts. His opinion of Hibs was forged in the heat of a rivalry, but the 23-year-old could not be provoked into giving the Leith side a skelp just for old time’s sake. “I’m a Partick Thistle fan now,” said the defender, who moved permanently to the Glasgow club two years ago.
He is still involved in a fight with Hibs, of course, with Thistle pursuing a win this afternoon which could help them consolidate a place in the top flight next season. A victory might also sentence their hosts to a stretch in the relegation play-off place – albeit Hearts would also have to lose at home to Kilmarnock tomorrow.
The hosts’ fragility will be on public display for a further 90 minutes today, although Balatoni is not inclined to gawp at it. Thistle are also just a point above the play-off spot, although their prospects of avoiding it seem bolstered by a stronger resolve. The Firhill side have collected four points since the league split.
The misfortunes suffered by Hibs have still caught his eye, though. They are a club with the means to spend a six-figure transfer fee on a player in the summer and lure a new manager from a rival club midway through the season but have been left to see out the campaign looking for scraps at the bottom of the table.
It is an image unfamiliar to the one Balatoni developed growing up across town. “You look at their team and you wonder why they are on such a bad run of form, especially after getting a new manager,” said the Thistle defender.
“If you look at their wage budget and the fact they paid £200,000 for James Collins, you would expect teams that can pay that for a player to be challenging for at least the top six. But the table doesn’t lie. We are where we are and they are where they are.”