Hibs winger Nicky Cadden spoke to the media after Saturday's 2-1 defeat by St Mirren - here's all he had to say... 

You must have thought you'd saved it at the end?

“Yeah. I knew it had hit Gayley [Dwight Gayle] to be honest, I thought it hit his hand at the time. Even if it hits him, I think it’s still going in. But, at the end of the day, it’s not excusable for the first, whatever, 90 minutes 

“We need to give the gaffer better performances, basically.”

What do you feel is the issue? Is it a lack of confidence, something else?

“I really don’t know, to be honest. We’ll strip today back during the week and take it from there. I’m not too sure. But, listen, the performances haven’t been good enough. Conceding goals, silly goals. 

“It’s obviously very raw after games and things and you always look at it in a different light the next day when you look at your performance or the team’s performance.

“It’s hard to comment just now, but, yeah, we need to start winning games quickly.”

What was the message from the gaffer?

“To be honest, he didn’t really need to say much. We know it’s not good enough. And we know he doesn’t deserve this.

“Since I’ve come to the club, he’s been brilliant with me, brilliant with all the boys and we just need to give him better levels of performance and, ultimately, win games.”

The gaffer put three subs on at half-time - what did he say to you?

“Again, he didn’t really need to say much to me. I need to go on and try to change the game and same with the other boys because, obviously watching it from the side, I could see it wasn’t good enough.

“But the situation we are in just now, we need to win games and quickly.”

Are you the type of group to go after each other [when things aren't going well]?

“I think we need a wee bit more of that, if I’m honest.”

It didn’t look like there was much finger-pointing or things been sorted out?

“I suppose it is all well and good doing that, but I think you need a wee bit of bad side about you. Sometimes you don’t need that. Just run more than your opponent, or whatever.

“I think we could do a wee bit more of that and demand more of each other.”

In terms of leadership - is there enough of that in this squad?

“Yeah, we’ve got a lot of experienced players. I feel as if I am one of the experienced guys as well I’ve been around football a long time and I know when it is not good enough and I know when performances have been good.

“But, as I said, that first half, and then second-half we huffed and puffed a wee bit, but it’s just not good enough for this size of club to be where we are just now.”

Is it good or frustrating having the international break now?

“It can be good and bad. I always like to get the next game and try to make things right as quickly as possible.

“Obviously, we’ve got a break now, which could be a good thing. We can reset and try to right the wrongs, but also it’s a long time until the next game and, personally, I don’t like that.”

Do you shut yourself away or face up to it?

“I’ll watch the game, probably. My missus will shout at me, but I need to. I feel like that’s what you need to do. You need to look at your performance individually first and then look at it as a collective.

“We’re not happy. It’s not like we’re bouncing about happy, or happy about how the first 12 games have gone. We know it needs to be better and, ultimately, the gaffer does not deserve this.”

You hear people say players don’t care... is that a myth?

“That’s the one thing that really annoys me, saying players don’t take it to heart because, oh, we play football, we’re in a good job, or we’re well paid.

“But at the end of the day, my weekend decides. If I win on Saturday, I’m happy. If I lose, I’m unhappy for the next couple of days and my missus gets the brunt of it. It’s probably harder for her than me because, obviously, I’m not really nice to be around because I just shut myself off, I look deep into things. 

“That’s me as a person and I’m sure everybody in there [dressing room] is the same and we’re not happy with performances.”

Can fans sometimes forget that, because you have to be like that to even get to this level?

“It’s not all sunshine and daisies and we know that. There are a lot more lows in football than highs and it’s hard to win a game of football.

“When you win, I think you should enjoy it because it really is hard. There are 11 people against you doing the exact same thing and we just need to try and stick together and, ultimately, perform better.”

You can take being called poor, but don’t say we don’t care?

“Yeah. Obviously we can say, yeah, we weren’t great, we can say that. But we care probably as much as everyone else.”

You seemed to make a point of applauding the fans at the end - is that important to you?

“I feel like I always applaud the fans no matter the result because, at the end of the day, they are spending their money to come and watch us play.

“I’m sure fans won’t be happy. I know things are expensive these days as well, so they are spending to come and see us and we are performing, we are not giving it back to them and that’s, ultimately, not good enough for this football club.”