CRYSTAL PALACE MIDFIELDER Steve Thomson has become the first player to reverse the current Easter Road trend of players moving out the door by entering Easter Road for the first time this week!  Thomson will spend some time at the club to allow Bobby Williamson to assess his capabilities at close quarters and perhaps become the first signing in the Hibs boss's promised batch of new faces for next season.  The Hibs boss told the Edinburgh Evening News last night that Thomson was just the first of a number of players he had his eyes on, the 25-year-old being out of contract at the English Nationwide League side and already having been told that no new deal would be offered.

"We’re taking Steve in for a few days to have a look at him but he is only one of a number of players who have come to our attention as we look to bring new faces to Hibs," Williamson said of his move for Thomson, who has been at Palace throughout his entire career so far.  After signing professional forms in 1995, Thomson made his first team debut during a club pre-season tour in Scandinavia prior to the 1997/98 season.  It was a year later however before he made a sustained breakthrough into first team football, after shining in most of the pre-season games in 1998/99 from his central midfield role Thomson made his debut proper in an Inter-Toto Cup tie before making his league debut against Bury.  Glasgow-born Thomson went on to a place in Scotland's Under-21 squad while this season he has been a regular in the Palace side, scoring once and collecting three yellow cards along the way.

Steven Thomson - Easter Road trial

Described as a no-nonsense midfielder by Palace fans, Thomson perhaps typifies the type of midfield player that evokes mixed emotions in the supporters who watch him week in week out.  A ball-winner who works hard in the engine room, Thomson is not the type who attracts much of the glory and tends to be appreciated more by his fellow players and coaches than by football fans themselves!  With Grant Brebner, Jarkko Wiss, Frederic Arpinon, John O'Neil, Mathias Jack and Derek Townsley all likely to be missing from the Easter Road side next season it is perhaps no great surprise that Williamson is concentrating first in finding new blood for the midfield.

Meanwhile Bobby Williamson has also confirmed that French defender Yannick Zambernardi will not play again this season.  Zambernardi took a bad knock in the 3-1 win over Aberdeen at Easter Road on Saturday, having to be replaced by Derek Townsley, and transpires that the player tore an abductor muscle in his right thigh.  Williamson said: "It is a pity for Yannick but we’ll shuffle things about and it could give someone an opportunity."

One player still on the Easter Road books and not planning to go anywhere is striker Garry O'Connor - but the just-turned 20-year-old is clearly hurt by the criticism he is receiving from the Easter Road stands.  O'Connor had to undergo a mini-gauntlet of hate when replaced after just half an hour of Saturday's win over Aberdeen, and this was further reflected in one of the longest and most heated debates on the Hibs.net message board for many years.  Quite why so many in the Hibs support have turned against O'Connor remains something of a mystery, it being only a little over a year since the young striker burst onto the scene in spectacular fashion, including an unlikely and perhaps way too early call-up to the Scotland international squad.  Rumour about his far from perfect off-field demeanour have perhaps contributed to the fall in grace for O'Connor, but that is considered to be highly unfair on a player who admits himself that perhaps his rise in the game came both too quickly and too soon. 

There are some Hibs fans of course who simply lack any patience where younger players at the club are concerned, something that any future stars at the club may need to pay attention to!  Such fans expect the initial stunning impact by players to be maintained, giving no allowance for age and experience of the player concerned and perhaps inadvertently holding back the progress of such players through over-inflated expectations.  "I think there are supporters who don't realise just how young I am," O'Connor said, adding: "They talk about Derek Riordan being an up-and-coming youngster but he's six months older than I am.  Tam McManus is still categorised as one of Hibs' young hopefuls and he's two years older than me.  I really don't think the Hibs fans fully understand what I'm going through and some of them are failing to give me the backing I need on the park."