Top of the League and yet I'm not convinced Thread

[heretoday]

We are top of the league and yet I'm not convinced.

Second half on Sunday and panic set in. Should have been a draw let's face it.

[God Petrie]

Hibs would have lost that game last season. We aren't the finished article but we have a lot more fight and resilience which is what a lot of people were looking for.

[Steve20]

I wouldn't have said it should have been a draw. If anything, we should have been more than two goals up before they even looked like threatening.

[DaveF]

I'm not convinced either and I don't think any Hibs fan is.

Surely you understand that this is still very much a work in progress? Personally, following the last few years if we got close to the Top 6 this season I would have been happy. The progress we have made has been outstanding and now the job is build on the confidence we have gained, add to the squad in the right way and keep the momentum going.

Fenlon and the players have done the club and the fans proud. But there is still a long way to go so sit back and enjoy it.

I know I am

[Hibs7]

A defensive error let them back in the game, it would have been different if we had stayed at 2-0, we might have gone on and scored more as we were playing really well. A punt up the park and a stupid mistake and we lose a goal and let them back into it.

[Bohemian_Hibee]

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We are top of the league and yet I'm not convinced.

Second half on Sunday and panic set in. Should have been a draw let's face it.

What exactly do you need convincing about? That Hibs are far and away the best team in the league and will romp home to the league title? As if.

This is a work in progress, Fenlon is no messiah, and he know's that Hibs still need strenghtening in certain areas. What we did see though, on Sunday, was some lovely flowing entertaining football followed by the ability to dig in deep to grind out a result. These were two traits that were not evident last season, so maybe we should look at the positives rather than highlightening the negatives. No one expected Hibs to be in this position after the opening day defeat to Utd, no one expects Hibs to stay there, so enjoy the moment. As the Fianna Fail party over here used to say on election posters; "A lot done, More to do".

[Taz_hibee]

Lets just enjoy being top of the league, we all know deep down this will not last all season and we will have our chance to moan about performances later in the season.

On the other hand how good would it be if we finished in top 2 :pfgwa

[Golden Bear]

Yes, we've had the breaks recently but we were overdue our share of fortune.

A gradual and steady improvement will do for me. A top six finish is acceptable but second place is not beyond our capabilities.

[hibs0666]

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We are top of the league and yet I'm not convinced.

Second half on Sunday and panic set in. Should have been a draw let's face it.

Don't think panic set in at all - quite the opposite in fact.

[EuanH78]

Dont worry about not being 'convinced' just enjoy the good times when they are here.

God knows they're few and far between.

[Scouse Hibee]

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We are top of the league and yet I'm not convinced.

Second half on Sunday and panic set in. Should have been a draw let's face it.

Not convinced about what?

We are top of the league on merit, it wasn't a draw it was a win that's the difference. So what if we rode our luck a bit that's what happens when you are playing well you sometimes get the breaks to go with it.
No-one is saying that we're top and going to stay there, we might continue to do well or we might yet slump, however the fact remains that we are top of the league through merit and no-one can take that away from us.

[KWJ]

The players seem to have phases in games where they play attacking, attractive football not seen since the Mowbray era. That first goal was sublime.

I wanted a marked improvement this season, we've had that. League position is a huge bonus.

[Stevie Reid]

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We are top of the league and yet I'm not convinced.

Second half on Sunday and panic set in. Should have been a draw let's face it.

"Let's face it" Seriously?

I don't think us Hibs fans have not faced anything in the last few months, we haven't had a choice after that utterly horrendous day in May. What are your motivations for starting such a thread exactly? Do you think that you are pointing out some truth that everyone else is too blind to see? Or do you simply think that we are enjoying ourselves too much and feel the need to try and spoil it?

As I mentioned in another thread, football over 90 minutes is about attacking and defending, and we did both very well on Sunday - we did not panic at all, in fact we lost a goal because our goalkeeper refused to panic when he should have launched a clearance, and we looked far more secure at the end of that game than we did the week before against St. Mirren (where we did panic a bit).

The first half was amongst the best Hibs performances I've seen in the last few years, and over the whole game we looked dangerous at one end, and fully committed at the other. We scored two superb goals and a back four with half the regular players missing and two players playing out of position restricted an attack featuring Daly, Russell, Mackay-Steven and Skacel to one goal, and you're not convinced? What do you expect exactly? We have won one game less after 13 matches than we did in the whole of last season, won more than twice as many home games out of 7, what more could you possibly want after the disasters of the last two seasons? We are top of the league on merit, and like every season, we will finish where we deserve to finish because the league doesn't lie.

FWIW I have mentioned in two home games this season (Kille and Dundee Utd) that I could have seen us lose an equaliser and drop two points and still be happy because our improvements are so obvious and the games were so good and exciting to watch - something we could only dream of in the last few seasons. Sunday was an excellent game of football played at a high tempo, with lots of good play from both sides - to see us go two points clear at the top of the league in mid November after that, I honestly didn't think anyone could complain. I should've known better

[KWJ]

Nice rant Stevie

[SlickShoes]

I am 29 years old and in my entire life I have never been "convinced" by hibs.

When we were 5-1 up in the CIS cup final I was still bricking it.

I was at tynecastle when we threw away a 4-2 lead in 2 minutes.

I will enjoy watching a hibs team that seems like it actually cares, players that want to be at the club, fans that want to support the club and a manager that knows what he is doing. We are still hibs, we are still an SPL team on a tiny budget compared to the wider football world.

For the last 3 years I watched some of the worst football I have seen from hibs I can even remember, just enjoy the fact that we are doing well, think about where we were this time last season and realise we are making progress. We have a good spine to the team now, something we have lacked for a long time, if we can get a few more guys signed up for 2/3 years we can hopefully build on our current progress. If you think we are going to win the league because we are top in mid november then you haven't been a hibs fan for very long.

[Stevie Reid]

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Nice rant Stevie

Haha, thanks - I certainly wasnae happy!

[JimBHibees]

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"Let's face it" Seriously?

I don't think us Hibs fans have not faced anything in the last few months, we haven't had a choice after that utterly horrendous day in May. What are your motivations for starting such a thread exactly? Do you think that you are pointing out some truth that everyone else is too blind to see? Or do you simply think that we are enjoying ourselves too much and feel the need to try and spoil it?

As I mentioned in another thread, football over 90 minutes is about attacking and defending, and we did both very well on Sunday - we did not panic at all, in fact we lost a goal because our goalkeeper refused to panic when he should have launched a clearance, and we looked far more secure at the end of that game than we did the week before against St. Mirren (where we did panic a bit).

The first half was amongst the best Hibs performances I've seen in the last few years, and over the whole game we looked dangerous at one end, and fully committed at the other. We scored two superb goals and a back four with half the regular players missing and two players playing out of position restricted an attack featuring Daly, Russell, Mackay-Steven and Skacel to one goal, and you're not convinced? What do you expect exactly? We have won one game less after 13 matches than we did in the whole of last season, won more than twice as many home games out of 7, what more could you possibly want after the disasters of the last two seasons? We are top of the league on merit, and like every season, we will finish where we deserve to finish because the league doesn't lie.

FWIW I have mentioned in two home games this season (Kille and Dundee Utd) that I could have seen us lose an equaliser and drop two points and still be happy because our improvements are so obvious and the games were so good and exciting to watch - something we could only dream of in the last few seasons. Sunday was an excellent game of football played at a high tempo, with lots of good play from both sides - to see us go two points clear at the top of the league in mid November after that, I honestly didn't think anyone could complain. I should've known better

Completely agree we are getting a few breaks at present however lets enjoy it as no doubt we will get a few bad ones soon enough.
If we cant enjoy playing well and winning games and being top of the league when can we. Delighted with the way the team is developing. Personally I wanted a bit more hunger, organisation and fight than last year however we have got so much more than that as things are and both goals on Sunday were an absolute joy to watch and showed clearly we are improving markedly. PF is slowly and surely getting us back to where we should be in Scottish football.

[matty_f]

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"Let's face it" Seriously?

I don't think us Hibs fans have not faced anything in the last few months, we haven't had a choice after that utterly horrendous day in May. What are your motivations for starting such a thread exactly? Do you think that you are pointing out some truth that everyone else is too blind to see? Or do you simply think that we are enjoying ourselves too much and feel the need to try and spoil it?

As I mentioned in another thread, football over 90 minutes is about attacking and defending, and we did both very well on Sunday - we did not panic at all, in fact we lost a goal because our goalkeeper refused to panic when he should have launched a clearance, and we looked far more secure at the end of that game than we did the week before against St. Mirren (where we did panic a bit).

The first half was amongst the best Hibs performances I've seen in the last few years, and over the whole game we looked dangerous at one end, and fully committed at the other. We scored two superb goals and a back four with half the regular players missing and two players playing out of position restricted an attack featuring Daly, Russell, Mackay-Steven and Skacel to one goal, and you're not convinced? What do you expect exactly? We have won one game less after 13 matches than we did in the whole of last season, won more than twice as many home games out of 7, what more could you possibly want after the disasters of the last two seasons? We are top of the league on merit, and like every season, we will finish where we deserve to finish because the league doesn't lie.

FWIW I have mentioned in two home games this season (Kille and Dundee Utd) that I could have seen us lose an equaliser and drop two points and still be happy because our improvements are so obvious and the games were so good and exciting to watch - something we could only dream of in the last few seasons. Sunday was an excellent game of football played at a high tempo, with lots of good play from both sides - to see us go two points clear at the top of the league in mid November after that, I honestly didn't think anyone could complain. I should've known better

We are very much a work in progress, and while things are good just now I don't think anyone is under any illusions that we'll stay where we are at the moment.

I'm not really sure what people would want convinced of?

[hibsbollah]

To be a Hibby, you need to be borderline bipolar. See below;


I am totally convinced. I am wandering about shouting my mouth off to every yam who will listen (and some who will not) that the league title is in the bag, and Euro domination will soon follow, blissfully unaware that all this showing off will come back to bite me on the ass.

We're going to lose this weekend to Dundee, there's no doubt in my mind.

[Brizo]

Having been up to Tannadeechie first game of season where we were abysmal the improvement has been very impressive. The Arabs are returning to their early season form and yet on this ocassion particularly in the first half we matched them for skill and workrate and bettered them in the finishing department. Yes the last 30 minutes felt like 2 hours and I kept expecting them to equalise; but the point is they didnt.

I came away from the game thoroughly entertained and thats a phrase I couldnt use for the previous couple of seasons. We are playing some great passing football at times in games and Fenlons buys / loans are showing a commitment to play for the jersey sadly lacking in so many previous teams. The ability come the transfer window to hang onto our loanees and keep the signed players who have made a big impression so far might be the difference between us staying in the top two or three in the table or not.

Of course we are Hibs so it could go **** up before we know it .... but lets enjoy it when we can.

[Monopolyguy]

If we are still up there at the end of the year and can keep hold of our players in January, then i don't see why we can't make a realistic challenge. There's somthing special about the team this year, and i haven't felt this optimistic about Hibs in years.

If we get good results in the next few weeks, especially against Aberdeen and Celtic then i think we will be considered serious contenders.

No matter what happens though, I think we have to be grateful for the attitude shown by the Players and manager compared to the ***** that was on display last season.

[Saorsa]

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We are top of the league and yet I'm not convinced.

Second half on Sunday and panic set in. Should have been a draw let's face it.

[hibee_girl]

I don't think we need to be convinced, we just need to enjoy it!

[scoopyboy]

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We are top of the league and yet I'm not convinced.

Second half on Sunday and panic set in. Should have been a draw let's face it.

I could probably argue most of our wins could have been draws, apart from Dundee.

Both St.Mirren games we have been 2-1 and glad to hear the final whistle.

Same for Killie and Dundee Utd.

St.Johnstone we weren't hanging on for grim death but we scored at the end of a first half when we could easily have been 2 or 3 down.

If Higdon had scored his penalty then Motherwell could easily have got an equaliser.

All ifs and buts but the facts are that we held on and have seven wins out of thirteen games, we should enjoy IMO as we have suffered a lot in recent times.

I'm not thinking for a minute we will win the league but if you look at the Premiership for example the winners each season whether it be Utd, City or Chelsea get a good share of late winners, dodgy refereeing decisions, etc so I don't see any problem in us having collected more points than our play has possibly deserved.

[Alex Trager]

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I could probably argue most of our wins could have been draws, apart from Dundee.

Both St.Mirren games we have been 2-1 and glad to hear the final whistle.

Same for Killie and Dundee Utd.

St.Johnstone we weren't hanging on for grim death but we scored at the end of a first half when we could easily have been 2 or 3 down.

If Higdon had scored his penalty then Motherwell could easily have got an equaliser.

All ifs and buts but the facts are that we held on and have seven wins out of thirteen games, we should enjoy IMO as we have suffered a lot in recent times.

I'm not thinking for a minute we will win the league but if you look at the Premiership for example the winners each season whether it be Utd, City or Chelsea get a good share of late winners, dodgy refereeing decisions, etc so I don't see any problem in us having collected more points than our play has possibly deserved.

And of course if you look at Celtic this happens aswell. This is exactly the kind of thing that happens when you're up the top of the league. If we play well and win we look awesome if we don't play so well but can still win then to me that's the sign of a champion. Not saying that will be the result at the end but right now it's why we're top

[Stevie Reid]

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I could probably argue most of our wins could have been draws, apart from Dundee.

Both St.Mirren games we have been 2-1 and glad to hear the final whistle.

Same for Killie and Dundee Utd.

St.Johnstone we weren't hanging on for grim death but we scored at the end of a first half when we could easily have been 2 or 3 down.

If Higdon had scored his penalty then Motherwell could easily have got an equaliser.

All ifs and buts but the facts are that we held on and have seven wins out of thirteen games, we should enjoy IMO as we have suffered a lot in recent times.

I'm not thinking for a minute we will win the league but if you look at the Premiership for example the winners each season whether it be Utd, City or Chelsea get a good share of late winners, dodgy refereeing decisions, etc so I don't see any problem in us having collected more points than our play has possibly deserved.

All very good points Scoopy, though you could also add that Hearts should have had Templeton sent off, we were undone by a very poor refereeing decision when 2-0 up and cruising against ICT, we suffered from a bad decision up at Ross County for their winning goal. They don't even themselves out exactly over the course of the season, but the league table doesn't lie.

We've definitely been far, far less convincing at times this season (as you mentioned, we didn't get a kick of the ball against St. Johnstone in the first half at ER) than we were on Sunday - we've actually started many games slowly but developed a good habit of scoring during periods in games that we've not been in control of. We are improving and it's great to see - the highest finishing non OF team typically does ok with injuries, suspensions and wee breaks over the course of the season, I really hope it's us this year. But you don't get there without playing very well too.

[YehButNoBut]

Have to agree with the tweet below

Inside the SPL‏@AgentScotland
The SPL team of the year so far has to be Hibs, utter shambles last year saved by an extraordinary poor Dunfermline side, what a turn around

[essexhibee]

Had we not given away a silly goal I'm sure we would have been cruising.

Enjoying being in this position while it lasts

[Just_Jimmy]

We're going to win the league.

[Pretty Boy]

Not convinced about what exactly?

That we will win the league? Neither am I and we most likely won't.

That we will finish second? Neither am I but we might.

That we will finish top 6? I'm fairly sure we will and that in itself is a great improvement.

The we are better than last year? Stevie Wonder can see we are a completely different team and he knows nowt about football.