Michael Stewart. Player who was frustrating to watch but we always struggled whenever he was injured or suspended.
Craig Brewster wasn't that impressive at Easter road but again another player who done alot of unnoticed work off the ball
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Michael Stewart. Player who was frustrating to watch but we always struggled whenever he was injured or suspended.
Craig Brewster wasn't that impressive at Easter road but again another player who done alot of unnoticed work off the ball
Martin McIntosh and Gary Smith
He most definitely was. His class stuck out like a sore thumb in the season that he was with us - IIRC we went 17 games without a win that season, and Brewster missed 13 of them through a shoulder injury.
Losing him was a massive setback, as he had formed a deadly partnership with O'Connor, and would go on to do the same at Dunfermline with Stevie Crawford.
I thought most folk appreciated Gary Smith (did he not win Player of the Year one season?), but agree on McIntosh, people seem to remember him as some sort of huddy. He looked fine when he came in, but got sent off against Hearts in the last game of the season, missed the first game of the following season and never got his place back, due to Fenwick's form. Another who I feel we let go too early.
Good one. I was going to say Tony Rougier. He was quite tricky for a big man. You never knew what he would come up with. Sometimes he came up with nothing at all.
Bit like Michael O'Neill although you couldn't afford to have both of them playing at the same time!
An amusing story about Gary Smith - a few years back in the Williamson days, I worked for a company called Event Exchange, who had been employed by Hibs to try and entice lapsed supporters back to ER; this involved phoning up lapsed ST holders from the club database, asking them why they no longer went to ER, and what it would take to get them back.
Somehow Gary Smith's details were on there, and my colleague phoned him up to ask him if he still went on a regular basis, only to be told that he's there fairly regularly, given the he plays for them - "Ah you're that Gary Smith!"
Brian Hamilton is the stand out for me. The abuse he got from the fans was unbelievable. I got myself in many an arguement stcking up for him back in the day.
Also agree with Justin Skinner. I thought he looked a very inteligent footballer and a great passer of the ball.
More recently, Vaz Tez looked streets ahead of everyone else in his short time with us. Maybe lacked a little desire to be fair but I'm not suprised he's a regular in the Premiership now.
Nothing comes close to Fletcher as far as I'm concerned. Used to get absolute pelters for being lazy, one footed etc etc (I'll happily admit I wasn't without guilt on that score) and look how he has turned out since!
Paul Fenwick
Correctamundo!! Too one footed was the cry, although I've never seen this leveled at a right footed forward.
Whittaker wasn't overly rated by quite a few as well I would suggest.
I also agree with the John Rankin shout...too few poeople understood that he was being asked to play the whole left hand side for Hibs...track back, win the midfield, get forward etc etc. Tells a tale that he walked into the United side that everyone was saying was sooo much better then most of the SPL last year.
To be fair though there is not too many examples (Rougier was rated as far as I'm concerned so dunno why he's mentioned on this thread) where players were seriously considered guff and have then went on to great things....generally they have been guff and sadly there has been far too many examples!!
Not the most underrated player, but I recall Rob Jones taking quite a few pelters at times while at Easter Road. Was a good solid central defender that we missed badly once he left. He also liked the odd goal.
Clayton Donaldson
Paddy Cregg
Francis Dickoh
Victor Palsson
Ricardo Vaz Te
and ...................
Phil Airey :greengrin
Fabian Yantorno.
Agreed, no comparison can be made. O'Neil was excellent, Rougier had moments of brilliance but they were way to infrequent.
What about Paul Hartley-definitely underachieved and underated at Hibs.
Akpo Sodje? Scoring well at Preston. Found the net better than the guys who have come in since.
Gonna have to wear my tin hat in this but honestlyvthink the likes of nish and maybe even agogo, benji could ofvreached huge heights but through the club and benji actions it just didnt work (cis07 id say benji was ten times better than fletch on that day and look where fletch is)
I feel mcbride, miller and rankinHg were amazing players with mcbride and miller being skillful on the ball and rankings hunger and fittness (some of the stories he told me made me believe he took playing football very serious) but when they played together just made us too light....
Hogg when partnered with jones was underrated and i feel with the right teaching maka could of being a great goalie
Tommy McIntyre for me....never understood why he never got even one Scotland call-up while with us
Stephen Dobbie was under rated, scored goals in the cup games, never got a chance in league games, good off the ball movement.
Looking back on things and compared to some of the dire that has wore the green - Brian Hamilton is another who was underated IMO. Broke the play up, played a simple ball to the likes of McGinlay and had his shot in the cup final went in instead of hitting the post it would have been one off the best free kicks ever scored at Hapdump.