HARRY’S LOST IN LEITH
Major summer signing McKirdy still seeking his first goal for Hibs... but despite on-field struggles and a social media post that drew the wrath of fans, he’s eager to make mark
WITH his cockatoo hairdo and on-field swagger, Harry McKirdy bears more than a passing resemblance to Derek Riordan. Still searching for his first Hibs goal, he’s yet to show the Easter Road faithful that he possesses the same unerring knack in front of goal as the two-footed, yet ultimately underachieving, maverick of yesteryear.
As McKirdy steps into the press room at Hibs’ Tranent training base to preview this afternoon’s game against Dundee United, the assembled journalists are braced for a stubborn address, perhaps citing rotten luck or bad management for his barren run.
That’s probably what Riordan, oldest of a pack of gallus Easter Road starlets, would have done back in the day.
Yet looks can be deceptive. Reputations sometimes misleading.
As McKirdy starts to speak, he comes across as more of a lost boy than wide boy. There’s honesty and vulnerability and not even a hint of an excuse as he confronts his record of zero goals in 18 appearances.
‘It is tough to put into words,’ he says. ‘You’ve all seen it, the fans have seen it. It has been far from good, far from what I expected. It has been difficult. And it does play on your mind.’
McKirdy’s deadline-day capture last summer seemed like something of a coup for Lee Johnson. A product of the Aston Villa youth system, McKirdy spectacularly caught fire last season, rattling in 24 goals for Swindon.
Yet almost as soon as he arrived in Edinburgh, McKirdy seemed cast as a peripheral player as
Johnson chopped and changed his team in search of an elusive blend.
‘I should probably have scored twice in my first game and it might have been completely different,’ he says. ‘If you count assists, I was involved in 40 goals last season. Every time I stepped on the pitch, I expected to score, grab the matchwinner or set it up. It was a habit.
‘I’ve had four starts here, so while there’s not been a lot of opportunities it’s still 15 (sic) times I have been on the pitch. No goals and no assists. It’s not good enough.’
McKirdy also arrived in Scotland under the cloud of a red-card controversy. His two bookings in a 0-0 draw with Salford in August (one for dissent, the other a foul) were scarcely noteworthy yet his subsequent actions of hurling a drink into an empty referee’s room led to a stained suit, extra headlines and an FA charge. McKirdy is clearly capable of impetuousness and, just like that thrown protein smoothie, is a little bit off the wall.
An open book on social media, he also drew heat when a Swindon fan said it was time for his return last November. ‘You’re not wrong’ was a light-hearted retort that drew a heavy reaction.
At the time, Johnson declared that the now-deleted post had been a throwaway remark borne of loneliness.
Speaking in the local press a few days ago, Johnson opined that McKirdy had struggled to adapt to higher levels of ‘professionalism’ at Hibs and expressed his belief that the presence of a new Scottish girlfriend in the player’s life would help settle him down.
Listening to McKirdy expand on his ongoing struggle, it does not sound as though manager and player are especially close.
‘I think he has a different approach, so we have not really had that conversation,’ says the striker. ‘The manager has a lot on his plate. It’s a big squad and we changed a lot in January.
‘If you took it all personally and thought, “It’s the manager’s job to turn me around” then it might not happen, because his job is to win football games.
‘You have to do it yourself. If I was relying on the manager that’s not good for anyone.’ McKirdy’s stray Tweet did nothing to endear himself to the Hibs fans, some of whom had already fixated on his fondness for Chelsea.
‘They’ve been mixed with me,’ admits the 26-year-old. ‘A lot of them want me to do well but a lot have already given up on me — they don’t like me.
‘People don’t know me, but I’ve been the one sitting in the stand at Chelsea. I don’t know these players and, if they have a bad touch, I’ll call them useless.
‘That’s just football fans, although I do think some take it too far on social media.
‘There is a misconception that I don’t care just because I support Chelsea. But that has nothing to do
with anything. I’m
I’ve actually missed going to grounds and getting abused. I quite like that
allowed to support Chelsea and still care about Hibs.
‘I’ve actually missed going to grounds and getting abused. I quite like that. I would say I thrive off it.
‘People will see me warming up, give my hair a bit of stick and then move on.
‘But people look at you different when you’re not scoring. They don’t have expectations any more. I’ve been pretty much written off by most people outside the building.
‘Inside the building, it’s not like that. I can tell the boys are desperate for me to get a goal. They say every week, “We want to see the machinegun celebration” and I’m desperate for it to happen, too. This squad has a good feel to it, they have been very supportive. Stevo (Lewis Stevenson) is great with me. He’ll make little comments like “You’ve been sharp this week”, just to get me going for the games.
‘Everyone has accepted who I am. It’s time I actually showed them what I can do.’
Although clearly affected by his drought, McKirdy insists he is not at his lowest ebb.
‘My career has been far from plain sailing,’ he continues. ‘Last summer, I was bought by a massive club but the summer before I couldn’t even get a club to take me on trial in England.
‘There were League Two clubs putting the phone down.
‘So this isn’t the low point in my career. There was a time during lockdown when I was unregistered in January and I had no interest in playing non-league with no fans for £500 a week. I was just lucky that
‘IF YOU THINK “IT’S THE MANAGER’S JOB TO TURN ME AROUND” THEN IT MIGHT NOT HAPPEN’
Swindon were in a situation that summer where they had only seven players. They took me in and I got my love for football back.
‘People say don’t get too high with the good times or low with the bad.
‘But I struggle with that because there’s been so many lows. You’re going to get down.’
A three-year deal has given McKirdy off-field security for virtually the first time in his career and, if that’s heightened his determination to make a fist of the move, he doesn’t want to give off the impression of being in a comfort zone.
He says: ‘I could just think “I’m on more money than I have been for the last few years, this is a nice city to live in, there’s nice golf courses”.
‘I wish I did think like that but that’s not the way it happens. I am desperate to do well and score goals. I miss that feeling so much.
‘I know if I do get a run of games I can turn things around. Eight of the 11 fixtures we play here are not much different from the games last year.
‘Celtic, Rangers and Hearts is a different kind of game but it’s not a massive step up most weeks.’
Although the move has not worked out thus far, McKirdy claims to have no regrets. And he is adamant he does not pine for a move back to England.
‘That would be an easy option for me but I don’t want to go back to two or three thousand fans again,’ he adds.
‘We are six or seven months into a three-year deal, so there is plenty of time to turn it around.
‘There’s definitely unfinished business here. If I left with no goals or assists, I’d be gutted. If I left here with one goal, I’d be gutted.
‘I want the fans, my team-mates and the staff to see that. My family, too. It literally takes one moment to change. I just need a goal.’
And maybe a hug.