With the emotion of last Wednesday night and the dullness of Sunday afternoon in West Lothian, many Hibs fans could be forgiven for not noticing two promising performances from Josh Campbell.

Given the nod ahead of Emiliano Marcondes for the final two games, I thought he showed a lot of good traits and qualities which bode well for next season. 

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Campbell has clocked just over one hundred Hibs appearances, scoring fifteen goals and providing eleven assists - not bad for a player who has experienced four managers during that time (five if you include David Gray in his interim spells) and has fulfilled a number of different positions from attacking midfield, right-wing, defensive midfield and, under Lee Johnson, even right-back. 

This season has been a strange one for Campbell. After back-to-back goals in November (vs St Mirren and Kilmarnock) playing as a supporting striker just off Dylan Vente, his game time became limited and he then picked up a complex lower-leg injury against Hearts in December, ruling him out until mid-April.

Before Wednesday, many of Campbell's appearances had been off the bench, with very limited game time. His cameo against St Johnstone did see him register an assist, heading the ball into Vente’s path for the third goal of the game.

In the subsequent matches against Motherwell and Livingston, he played a lot closer to Vente, linking up with him several times, which did help Hibs to build more meaningful attacks. He also is, and always has been, a willing runner in behind. When Vente dropped deep, Campbell would run in behind and this was such an important action as it helped stretch the game and move the opposition out of position.

I also noticed that in a lot of Hibs' build-up in the opposition half, Campbell was showing for the ball and if he didn’t get it, he moved again, and again.

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On the ball, he's looked assured and more confident. Cushioned headers and well-weighted passes were a real feature of Campbell’s game on Wednesday night. According to StatsBomb, he was in the top four or five Hibs players for shots, final-third passes, and passing accuracy. In a sleep-inducing performance against Livingston, he had 18 open-play final-third passes, 84% pass accuracy, three shots, and two key passes - coming top of the Hibs team for all of those metrics. 

I think Campbell would admit that attacking hasn’t always been a consistent part of his game and that it is something he needs to, at the age of 24, continue to improve and solidify going forward, if he wants to make that attacking midfielder role his own.

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The out-of-possession side of his game has always been strong. Defensively, he tracks back and isn’t shy in making a challenge and aerially, he puts himself about. He covered every blade of grass on Wednesday night but it wasn’t aimless running around, it was controlled and it was measured.

StatsBomb showed that against Motherwell, for defensive pressures and counter-pressures respectively, he had the highest (21) and second-highest (5) number of any Hibs player. In the game against Livingston, he had the second-highest pressures and counter-pressures across the team.

You can see how effective he was against Motherwell in the Twitter thread below.

There is no doubt going to be a lot of change and transition at the club this summer and with two homegrown heroes leaving in Paul Hanlon and Lewis Stevenson, as well as some other experienced players, Campbell will find himself as something of a key first-team player and, despite his relatively tender years, one with great experience of Hibs and what is expected. 

I would argue his versatility has been a double-edged sword. It’s given him first-team football, but hasn’t allowed him to develop the nuances of one position.

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The constant change of manager hasn’t helped either, but as Wednesday and Sunday showed, he is more than capable of being a key player going forwards.

He has to establish himself in that attacking midfielder role and continue to make improvements on the ball. If he develops that consistency and the club provide a stable platform going forward, he could become another homegrown player we are celebrating in years to come.