One Year on

[Billy Whizz]

This time last year we went out of the cup to Raith, game me one of my most depressing days of the season.
Team that day was
Williams
Forster
Stevenson
Nelson
Hanlon
Taiwo
Watmore
Craig
Collins
Stanton
Harris

Subs
Grant
Zoubir
Haynes
Robertson
Boateng
Maybury
Heff


Out if the 18 available for that dismal game, think we only have 5 available for selection. A big positive turnaround in a year

[Geo_1875]

This time last year we went out of the cup to Raith, game me one of my most depressing days of the season.
Team that day was
Williams
Forster
Stevenson
Nelson
Hanlon
Taiwo
Watmore
Craig
Collins
Stanton
Harris

Subs
Grant
Zoubir
Haynes
Robertson
Boateng
Maybury
Heff


Out if the 18 available for that dismal game, think we only have 5 available for selection. A big positive turnaround in a year

And look at how many of them got another gig in the SPFL. You wonder how they could have been so bad.

[The_Exile]

The players weren't the issue.

[Iain G]

The players weren't the issue.

They cant be completely absolved of all blame!!

[andrew70]

They cant be completely absolved of all blame!!

No they shouldn't but having listened to what's been said by the club this season I think we all know who's to blame.

However the players that remain are all pulling in the one direction now and want to repay us by being successful and of course getting promotion.

I will never ever forgive Butcher.

[21.05.2016]

They cant be completely absolved of all blame!!

Absolutely not but Butcher turned a crap side (but a side more than capable of staying up) and plummited us to relegation in an absolutely incredible free fall.

[Hibby Bairn]

And we still cannae beat them at ER. :greengrin

[21.05.2016]

This time last year we went out of the cup to Raith, game me one of my most depressing days of the season.
Team that day was
Williams
Forster
Stevenson
Nelson
Hanlon
Taiwo
Watmore
Craig
Collins
Stanton
Harris

Subs
Grant
Zoubir
Haynes
Robertson
Boateng
Maybury
Heff


Out if the 18 available for that dismal game, think we only have 5 available for selection. A big positive turnaround in a year

I really liked the look of Zoubir when he first came into the team, sadly turned out to be another flop.

[Sir David Gray]

This time last year we went out of the cup to Raith, game me one of my most depressing days of the season.
Team that day was
Williams
Forster
Stevenson
Nelson
Hanlon
Taiwo
Watmore
Craig
Collins
Stanton
Harris

Subs
Grant
Zoubir
Haynes
Robertson
Boateng
Maybury
Heff


Out if the 18 available for that dismal game, think we only have 5 available for selection. A big positive turnaround in a year

Almost, six are still here and are available to play tomorrow;

Robertson
Craig
Stanton
Hanlon
Stevenson
Forster

Seven if you include Harris, considering that he's still technically at the club.

11 out of 18 players have left in the past 12 months.

That's some turnover.

Hopefully we won't be looking back in 12 months' time at tomorrow's line up and only seeing five or six players who are still at the club.

[Lago]

The players weren't the issue.
Some of them were.

[21.05.2016]

Almost, six are still here and are available to play tomorrow;

Robertson
Craig
Stanton
Hanlon
Stevenson
Forster

Seven if you include Harris, considering that he's still technically at the club.

11 out of 18 players have left in the past 12 months.

That's some turnover.

Hopefully we won't be looking back in 12 months' time at tomorrow's line up and only seeing five or six players who are still at the club.

And thank god for that! Regardless of whether we beat Hamilton in the play-offs or not, a massive clear out was needed. A team with too many gutless no marks. Now we have a team that is playing good football, has good squad morale and are actually playing for the jersey. It's by no means perfect yet but absolute night and day from last season!

[Mikey]

Of the players that have left you could only put up a reasonable argument for keeping Collins. He would probably have scored goals in our current team.

You certainly couldn't say he's been missed though.

[Sir David Gray]

Of the players that have left you could only put up a reasonable argument for keeping Collins. He would probably have scored goals in our current team.

You certainly couldn't say he's been missed though.

Ben Williams. :agree:

[Mikey]

Ben Williams. :agree:

True. I've had 2 bottles of beer so that's my excuse :greengrin

[Billy Whizz]

True. I've had 2 bottles of beer so that's my excuse :greengrin

You must have had more than 2 bottles if you wanted to keep Collins

[Smartie]

That was the first game that I realised that all was far from well at Hibs.

Until then we had had a pretty grim start football-wise under Fenlon, earning results that still saw us in a safe enough (but not good enough) position in the league. We had a brief bounce under Butcher then a mediocre January.

The January window was dreadful. The deficiencies in the squad were simply not addressed and with Butcher's treatment of Thomson, Taiwo et al I'd say they were compounded.

I'd thought that we'd pick up when Hanlon came back into the team from injury which he did in that game. We still defended abysmally though, missed chances and went out of the cup at home to a lower division team without being able to have any real complaints.

With hindsight it was only ever going to go one way from there. Poor runs of form, like the one we went on can be very hard/ impossible to turn around. The players WERE to blame imo, Butcher played a part but those players were simply not up to the job on any level.

Look at where we are now, the manager and the players we have. Would anyone seriously rather have Maybury, Collins, McGivern, Taiwo, Watmore or Heffernan back in place of Gray, Malonga, Fontaine, Allan, McGeoch or Farid? And we've not even seen much of Dje-Dje, Fyvie, Cerny, Boyle or Watson yet. As pointed out, Williams is the only player you could even get cloe to making a case for being better than what we have now.

The level we're playing at now doesn't really come into it. We were well beaten by Raith last year. We were very unlucky to draw with them last week having pumped them for 90 minutes and suffered what was basically a freak result.

Butcher played a part, no doubt and I'm glad that we've got Stubbs in now instead. The players were ABSOLUTELY the issue for me though. They lost that game, I'm glad to see the back of so many of them and I'm delighted to see the competent new arrivals that we've been waiting for for years.

To lay all of the blame at Butcher's door misses the point entirely. He'd had the team for about 3 months at this point so whilst he'll have had an influence he was still quite new to the job. One of his signings started this game (was kicked off the park and never really recovered). One came on as sub and one didn't get off the bench (iirc). This was a horrifically imbalanced squad full of players not fit to wear the shirt and I (admittedly with hindsight) think that what eventually happened was inevitable.

Boy am I glad to be where we are now instead though and we should all be grateful for the work Dempster, Stubbs and more importantly THE PLAYERS have done to get us there.*

*cue embarrassing home defeat to Arbroath*

[Pete]

Of the players that have left you could only put up a reasonable argument for keeping Collins. He would probably have scored goals in our current team.

You certainly couldn't say he's been missed though.

Oddly enough I just can't imagine Collins being prolific. After last season the only memory I have of him is being rubbish and a crap finisher. Probably unfair but last season was that bad..

[tamig]

Oddly enough I just can't imagine Collins being prolific. After last season the only memory I have of him is being rubbish and a crap finisher. Probably unfair but last season was that bad..

I liked his goal in the new year derby.

[Northernhibee]

I'd have kept Taiwo as a squad player. Always liked him.