David Stephens

[DAVE1875]

Thought he was very decent today. Didn't put a foot wrong; got plenty of balls clear, put in good tackles. Shame we can't say the same for O'Hanlon, the boy was useless

[hibsbollah]

Individually, he's been fine since hes come in. The problem is, he's still part of a defence that collectively has been a total disaster.

Why do we constantly get decent individual performances from defenders but as a collective defence we are shocking? Stephens coming in reminds me of Thicot coming in a couple of seasons ago, you watch him and think 'thats a good player' but the defence keeps making mistakes despite that. Its been like this for at least 5 years. Its the Hibs Way.

[Iggy Pope]

I'm not sure why Stephens was considered any better, or any worse, than O'Hanlon today.
As well as being more than a wee bit fortunate to stay on the park when he gave Thomson the chance to balance the books.

[matty_f]

Between Stephens and O'Hanlon the defence have limited Rangers and Aberdeen to roughly three attempts at goal. Two have come from penalties, neither of which were conceded by Stephens or O'Hanlon, and the other from a corner where Hart failed to pick up his man.

I think they're doing their jobs well at the moment. I think because O'Hanlon didn't set the heather on fire when he came in that folk are still using their first impressions to judge him. He's a good defender IMHO and hasn't really put a foot wrong in the last two matches, if not longer.

Stephens is a good, young player. As he's inexperienced, he's still likely to make a mistake here and there, but his qualities are obvious. One of Yogi's better bits of business, IMHO.

[lucky]

Between Stephens and O'Hanlon the defence have limited Rangers and Aberdeen to roughly three attempts at goal. Two have come from penalties, neither of which were conceded by Stephens or O'Hanlon, and the other from a corner where Hart failed to pick up his man.

I think they're doing their jobs well at the moment. I think because O'Hanlon didn't set the heather on fire when he came in that folk are still using their first impressions to judge him. He's a good defender IMHO and hasn't really put a foot wrong in the last two matches, if not longer.

Stephens is a good, young player. As he's inexperienced, he's still likely to make a mistake here and there, but his qualities are obvious. One of Yogi's better bits of business, IMHO.

Not sure either of the two of them are any good but the difference in the last two games has been Stevenson and Wotherspoon have sat in front of them and gave them greater protection.

[crash]

Thought he was very decent today. Didn't put a foot wrong; got plenty of balls clear, put in good tackles. Shame we can't say the same for O'Hanlon, the boy was useless

It was stephens who set up Aberdeens best chance today.(penalty excluded)

[IberianHibernian]

Don`t understand criticism of O`Hanlon either and being realistic I can`t see us signing anyone better than him or Stephens in January .

[nonshinyfinish]

It was stephens who set up Aberdeens best chance today.(penalty excluded)

:agree:

Overall, he was good though. As was O'Hanlon, yet because he's become a target, people have the binoculars out looking for any wee thing that can be classed as a mistake so that they can come on here screaming 'bomb-scare'.

[NORTHERNHIBBY]

I think that both Stephens and O'Hanlon are decent enough players but I get the impression that each of them need to be partnered by a better player. If we still had Rob Jones, then Jones/Stephens or Jones/O'Hanlon would be decent pairings, but at the moment, Stephens/O'Hanlon comes up a bit short.

[madabouthibs]

Defence seems to have improved since wee Lewis has sat in front of them, he's been great the last couple of games, apart from one instance today when he was caught in midfield dilly dallying.

[Shrekko]

I've been a big critic of O' Hanlon since he came in but have been very pleasantly surprised at his last 2/3 performances- he's played well.

It's also true Stevenson and Wotherspoon (and Osboure last week) have given protection and I can see a few shut-outs coming once we stop conceding dubious penalties. Our main problems are up front and the lack of a creative midfielder at present.

[Moody D]

Not good enough A Yogi signing. Will cost us games and points!

[Northernhibee]

What did people make of Michael Hart's performance today?

There were a couple of moments where his lack of pace caught him out today, but I thought he did reasonably well.

[Gala Foxes]

O'Hanlon reminds me of Johnny "Leith" from the Collins era ( not that Johnny Leith played much)

He has minimal presence
When he does jump he has a knack of missing his header
Positional sense is pretty weak

He has been exposed at a number of goals this season

[DC_Hibs]

It's safe to say Joneleit is in a different league from O'Hanlon and Hibs now though.

Won the Belgian league last season and helped Genk into Champs league before being injured. Was talk of some Bundesliga clubs looking at him.

[HFC 0-7]

Between Stephens and O'Hanlon the defence have limited Rangers and Aberdeen to roughly three attempts at goal. Two have come from penalties, neither of which were conceded by Stephens or O'Hanlon, and the other from a corner where Hart failed to pick up his man.

I think they're doing their jobs well at the moment. I think because O'Hanlon didn't set the heather on fire when he came in that folk are still using their first impressions to judge him. He's a good defender IMHO and hasn't really put a foot wrong in the last two matches, if not longer.

Stephens is a good, young player. As he's inexperienced, he's still likely to make a mistake here and there, but his qualities are obvious. One of Yogi's better bits of business, IMHO.

Agree with a lot of this, I would say that the reason the we have limited the amount of chances opposition are having is not just down to the back four but more the fact we have wotherspoon and stevenson in particular playing really quite well in midfield breaking things up. They cover a lot of ground and they give the defence the protection and breathing space they need. the problem before was that the defence cleared and it came straight back at them giving them no rest and mounted pressure all the time. that is always going see mistakes. I still dont think O'Hanlon is particularly great, his positioning is still questionable and gets caught underneath the ball. Stephens looks like he could be OK but we will need to see some better composure from him at times as he can hump the ball away when there is a pass on, but at this time I would take humping the ball away rather than farting about with it at the back.

[CyberSauzee]

Agree with a lot of this, I would say that the reason the we have limited the amount of chances opposition are having is not just down to the back four but more the fact we have wotherspoon and stevenson in particular playing really quite well in midfield breaking things up. They cover a lot of ground and they give the defence the protection and breathing space they need. the problem before was that the defence cleared and it came straight back at them giving them no rest and mounted pressure all the time. that is always going see mistakes. I still dont think O'Hanlon is particularly great, his positioning is still questionable and gets caught underneath the ball. Stephens looks like he could be OK but we will need to see some better composure from him at times as he can hump the ball away when there is a pass on, but at this time I would take humping the ball away rather than farting about with it at the back.

Me too, a lot of positives to be taken out of PF's 2.5 games in charge. As matty_f says, the last 2 games we've only had the opposition shooting on target 3 times and 2 have been penalties FFS! As said Stevenson, Wotherspoon and Osbourne have been adding some much needed bite in front of the back four when we're defending. Very much a case of dying for the shirt.

No point in continually criticising who we put out in defence as that's all the manager has got to work with. Gone are the days of dipping straight into the transfer market as soon as a new gaffer comes in. He's got to manage with what's there, and we've seen what happens over the last few seasons when there are wholesale changes to the playing staff. There's no continuity with teamwork having to be built again from scratch.

PF's turning things around and defensively we're much better than we've been for months. Rather than getting on the defence's backs when the odd mistake is made (and they are getting fewer), maybe we should be looking to our attacking options as we'll need to start scoring as well as keeping clean sheets if we're to progress.

It's a team effort after all, players, management and us off the pitch. A bit of patience while PF sorts things out is needed.