No more soft touches - Hibs show mental toughness when it counts

Soft touches? A fragile group forever in search of an excuse for falling short? A squad of pea-hearted disappointments who let their heads drop at the first hint of a setback?

All are insults that have been hurled at Hibs over recent seasons. Accusations and denunciations that, not so long ago, would have hit an all-too-easy target.

With a little tough love from an incoming gaffer and a bit of introspection on the part of the players themselves, however, Hibs suddenly look an entirely different proposition.

No longer possessing all the durability of a paper bag left out in the sort of rain that battered Edinburgh all weekend, Nick Montgomery’s team did more than simply earn a Scottish Premiership point at Tynecastle on Saturday.

They became the first Hibs side to successfully come from two goals down, in a league fixture, since a 2-2 draw with St Mirren back in February 1, 2020.

They stared into the abyss of a derby defeat, held their nerve – and were rewarded by seeing their great rivals blink first.

Professional athletes lacking intestinal fortitude and fighting spirit simply don’t do what Monty’s men did in Gorgie.

Far from injecting a new mental toughness into his players, however, Montgomery would appear merely to have tapped into a previously dormant spring of hard-headed refusal to be beaten.

“It’s always been there,” insisted Martin Boyle, the Socceroos star adding: “It’s just been about how to get the best out of us, how to implement it.

“I feel like, since the manager came in, we’ve had that spark.

“So you could say that, a couple of months ago, we would have lost that game. But we all stick together. We’re definitely one unit.”

That togetherness was a big part in Hibs coming back from two goals down to pinch a point on enemy territory.

Poor in the first half, and punished by Alan Forrest’s wonderful strike from range, they were actually looking better when Alex Lowry’s low cross went spinning and looping off the boot of Christian Doidge to beat David Marshall.

Plenty of teams would have concluded, after such an unlucky break, that it simply wasn’t to be their day.

The moment Elie Youan got the first of his double, though, you could feel the atmosphere at Tynecastle change.

The away fans were now in full voice, serenading their hosts with a chorus of “Hearts, Hearts are falling apart, again …”

They only made it through a couple of verses before Youan struck again. And Hibs may well have gone on to win a derby already guaranteed to be remembered as one of the most exciting in a very long time.

“It was some game, wasn’t it?” said Boyle. “It was an enjoyable one.

“We showed good character to come back – and we knew we would get chances to score again after the first goal.

“Obviously we just couldn’t get that third to win the game. But it feels like a fair result.

“Yeah, I thought I had a chance to win it late on. But the grass felt a bit long and I couldn’t get the ball out of my feet, couldn’t move my feet quickly enough.

“Sometimes they fall for you and sometimes they don’t. I think both teams will have been thinking they could have won the game, to be honest.”

Montgomery made no excuses for laying into his team at half-time, having watched them fail to cope with their opponents – individually or collectively – in a brutal opening 45 minutes for the visitors.

Boyle said: “Yeah, he was angry. You could definitely say that! A few boys got a bollocking.

“The first goal, we let him cut inside and it was a great strike. But there were areas to improve on, for sure.

“The players knew that the first half hadn’t been good enough. In the middle of the park, we lost the battles, lost the duels. When you go to Tynecastle, you have to win those and get on top of the game.

“The game at that stage was a bit scrappy, a bit open. Obviously we didn’t dominate as we wanted.

“So the manager was within his rights to do that, to call us out and demand more. And it worked.

“The second goal for them was just unfortunate for Christian. A great finish!

“But these things happen, we stick together as a team, helped him out of it and got a point.

“The half-time talk made a difference, clearly. We were more on the front foot, more in those pockets, tried to get the ball in wide areas and create chances.

“Obviously we’re quite expansive, which we really enjoy. We create a lot of chances.

“But defending is just as important as attacking, in our game plan, so we try to get as narrow as we can and avoid giving up chances.

“There is a lot of work, a lot of build-up, a lot of tactics to take in. But it seems to be working.

“I don’t think you need to play well to win games, necessarily, if you take your chances when they come.

“But we know ourselves that last year we weren’t consistent enough, we dropped a lot of points.

“A draw at Tynecastle, we’ll probably take that as a good result, given the position we were in at 2-0 down.

“But we know ourselves that we need to be consistent, need to go on one of those winning streaks we’re more than capable of putting together.”