Thoughts from afar

[Alicky Ranks]

Having returned to the UK for a belated new year break, we attended our first Hibs game in well over a year on Saturday so I appreciate that by basing the following observations on only one game I may be well off the mark. However, I was struck by:

1. A total lack of atmosphere among the home fans. My memory may be playing tricks on me but I recall days when the first cup tie of the year added a bit of spice to the day. Given how freezing it was, I'd have thought a song or two would have helped to warm everyone up. Have we all forgotten how to sing?

2. Lack of support for the team. Fair enough, it was a p**h game and nobody in a Hibs shirt played especially well, but it seemed to me the overwhelming majority of fans just sat there waiting for something to happen before they would lend any backing to the team.

3. A worryingly low standard of football. Have things really slipped so far since I used to go to Hibs games regularly until 2006? When I left the UK, Mowbray's side were often a joy to watch. On paper, we look to have a good team but the standard on show was by and large woeful. Can those who attend regularly put me straight here? Was it just an all-round sub-standard show, or is Scottish football really this bad?! If it is, how dire must the teams below us in the table be?

Lest that all sounds like one big moan, I should stress that I am delighted to see John Hughes making such a difference since coming in as manager. I like the look of the squad he's building and I sense he has brought the spirit back to the dressing room. Here's hoping my current concerns will be blown away as the team steadily improves.

[RoYO!]

this is not an excuse and i totally agree with what you say...

however...

i put it down to the fact that the players and the fans thought it was going to be such a stroll that everyone just didnt really get up for it.

You could tell by all goal celebrations from players and fans that it wasn't a major relief, more a formality, that we had scored. in my point of view :cool2:

The most noise i heard from the west upper- where i was sat for a change- was the applauding of the meadow players as they left.

[blackpoolhibs]

I think the standard of play, and players have dropped since you last saw a game, and believe me it is getting better. You should have gone last season.:grr:

Since your last game, we have lost a lot of players, players that were genuine quality. Brown/Thomson/Murphy/Whittaker/O'Connor/Boozy/Stewart :faf: even Ivan, would all walk back into this team. We now have a couple of real quality players, alongside a lot of mediocre ones, and on Saturday, Miller apart, we had Bamba and McBride missing, 2 of our best performers this season. We have gone backwards, but that trend has stopped, and we ARE going the other way now.:thumbsup:

[Keith_M]

Alicky, I don't think you can completely judge the standard of football on that one game but, unfortunately, points 1 & 2 are absolutely correct.

It's all a matter of opinion, I suppose, as to whether the team should excite the crowd enough into making an atmosphere or if the fans should be backing the side regardless, maybe even motivating them by their backing, but the prevailing opinion seems to be the former. For me, that takes a lot away from the game as a spectacle.

[Sir David Gray]

I think the standard of play, and players have dropped since you last saw a game, and believe me it is getting better. You should have gone last season.:grr:

Since your last game, we have lost a lot of players, players that were genuine quality. Brown/Thomson/Murphy/Whittaker/O'Connor/Boozy/Stewart :faf: even Ivan, would all walk back into this team. We now have a couple of real quality players, alongside a lot of mediocre ones, and on Saturday, Miller apart, we had Bamba and McBride missing, 2 of our best performers this season. We have gone backwards, but that trend has stopped, and we ARE going the other way now.:thumbsup:

Pretty much sums up my thoughts.

We haven't been great this season, apart from both games against Motherwell and the game at Ibrox where we were probably at our best. In most other games we have played well in spells.

We have played effectively, if not spectacularly so far and the fact we have Stokes and Riordan in our team means that we often only need a couple of chances in a game and we can get a few goals and subsequently go on to win the game.

Our standard of overall football hasn't been too great but the forward players at our disposal have often been the difference in our matches.

As Blackpoolhibs rightly says though, the football this season has been miles better than it was last season. We were absolutely awful to watch last year and we weren't getting the results either.

We're not as good as we were four or five years ago but I think we are getting there and I think that, given time, Yogi will get us playing some good stuff and also keep us up there challenging for Europe.

[Rory89]

Even though the football hasn't always been pretty, I think you'd have to go back to Tony Mowbray's second season to find a Hibs team that would be better than our current one.

Yes under Collins we played much better football (untill it went totally wrong) and when we won the cup had players like Brown, Murphy, Fletcher, Whittaker, Jones etc, but back then we played well without always getting results. Now we just get generally good results, which I'm not complaining about. We're usually a bit better than Saturday to be fair.

Re the atmosphere, yes it's totally *****.