Never a player to shirk a challenge during his career, Hibs legend Pat Stanton has urged the current squad to stop feeling sorry for themselves and help pull the club out the mire.
With just one win in 19 games, pessimism is rife within the clubs hardcore support as they’ve watched their side fail miserably over the past few months culminating in a remarkable fall down the table which has seen them trapped in a play-off to retain their top flight status.
Stanton, 69, and still a revered figure at Easter Road, pulled no punches in an interview in today’s Scotsman and his comments have been well received by the fans.
He told the newspaper “When you consider the way things have gone, they`ve still got two games to put things right. They could easily have been sitting already out of it. But they`ve still got their chance and it`s just up to them to take it. Instead of talking about it, just do it. In situations like this, it can be difficult, but the last thing you do is feel sorry for yourselves. You`re in it and there`s only one group of people can do anything about it, and that`s you, the team.
“The manager can only say so much in these situations. The players have to say to themselves ‘we`ve got to get out of this` and just give 110 per cent in these games. All the plans that have been drawn up with the new chief executive and so on are designed to move the club on a wee bit, but that all hinges on what happens this week. It`s all come down to that, and if you think of the consequences? I think you try your best not to think of the consequences. You think ‘it will be all right in the end`. I saw players commenting a few weeks back, ‘we`ll be all right`. Well, no, you`ll not.
“You`ve got to go out there and make it happen. You can`t stand about feeling sorry for yourself and thinking ‘oh, here we go again`. You`ll have games where you go a goal down. So what? You just have to get on with it. There`s a lot to play for – I think that`s a bit of an understatement here – and that goes for Hamilton as well. There`s a lot for them and a lot for us. It`s up to you to realise what is at stake, but you try not to think about it too much.
“They`ve got to prove they are better players than the Championship players, but we got put out of the Scottish Cup by Raith Rovers at Easter Road.
“The time for talking`s long past. It`s the time for people to stand up and be counted. Things don`t have to go against you, and they will go against you at times. It`s how you react to it. You can worry and think ‘this is the scenario, here we go again`. It doesn`t have to be that way, the players can change that.”
Meanwhile, Inverness no.2 and former Hibs star Russell Latapy has warned Hibs of the dangers they face if they are relegated to the Championship.
Latapy featured in an all star Hibs side that strolled the league in 1999 but the Trinidadian warned “Normally a relegated club would hope that maintaining the nucleus of the team would be enough for them to win promotion.
“But next season there will be Rangers and Hearts in the Championship, two powerhouse SPFL clubs who just happen not to be in the top league.
“Normally it would be difficult to win the Championship, but next season it will be harder.
“But I`m sure that`s something Hibs will be well aware of, and which their management team will be telling the players before the Hamilton game.
“When I was at Hibs we won the First Division by a huge margin because we had a lot of top class players. But that was 15 years ago, and if Hibs go down now they will have a lot to do to come straight back.”
Vital Hibs is now available on both facebook and twitter, so if you are that way inclined please give us a follow or a like!
Vital Hibs on:
Vital Hibs on:
Join Vital Hibernian
It’s easy to REGISTER HERE, simply click the link and enjoy getting involved!
