Following Kilmarnock’s 1-0 victory over St Mirren on Wednesday evening Hibs head into Saturday’s final Scottish Premiership match of the season knowing nothing less than victory over their Ayrshire rivals will secure their top flight status next season.
Under normal circumstances, the Easter Road side would be confident of securing a win against Allan Johnstone’s men but this is a Hibernian team which hasn’t registered a victory in three months.
Whilst recriminations continue regarding how Hibs find themselves in this position after occupying a top 6 berth after New Year, it’s imperative Terry Butcher doesn’t oversee relegation to the Scottish Championship.
Whilst a play-off still beckons should Hibs fail to win there’s no guarantee this highly paid squad of underachievers could overcome a Hamilton, Falkirk or Queen of the South over two legs.
There’s no doubting the effort of the squad but the general lack of quality and leadership on the park has been almost mesmerising this season.
Potential match winners would include last season’s St Johnstone player of the year Liam Craig or young Alex Harris but both have came up woefully short too often during the current campaign and certainly over the past 3 months.
Supporters are crying out for Butcher to play two up front, ditching his favoured 4-5-1 but is a front pairing of Collins and Cummings likely to generate more of a goal threat than having Sam Stanton in an advanced role, preferably playing on a sitting midfielder’s shoulder?
The lack of goal threat is the most challenging piece of the puzzle for the Hibs management because other than set pieces there is rarely a chance made from open play.
Hibs will again be backed by a decent support although it’s unlikely to be as large a crowd as the board would hope such is the apathy of the fans towards this current squad of players.
Should Butcher’s men pull out all the stops and attain the win, hopefully a summer of change will make sure this club is not in this position again in 12 months time.
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