Hibs fans need tangible sign that things will get better

Neither Rocky Bushiri nor Jojo Wollacott will fondly remember this trip to the Highlands, with both guilty of awful errors that were punished by a Ross County team that didn’t have to do much more than work hard to trump their visitors.

It was a trip to forget for Nick Montgomery as well. Having earned a bit of respite from the pressure that’s been on him this season after winning at St Johnstone last weekend, he found himself apologetically applauding the travelling support at full-time as they made their feelings known. Patience has long since left the building with this team and their habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

It had all started so well; the first twenty minutes were entertaining with Hibs picking up where we’d left off against St Johnstone last week. We took the lead after Myziane Maolida was on hand to score from a yard out after Bushiri’s effort had hit the post.

Having effectively claimed an assist at one end, Rocky then had a less welcome assist at the other. His attempt at clearing a cross flighted into the penalty area simply set up Simon Murray, who wasted no time in hammering the ball beyond Wollacott, who had replaced the injured David Marshall.

If this was Wollacott’s audition for a starting place, he fluffed his lines with a performance littered with mistakes, the worst of which handed Ross County their winner as the game neared full-time.

It was another late goal conceded, another goal where the opposition were gifted the chance, and another sucker punch for a fanbase that have taken more hits than they really should have done this season. It’s like Groundhog Day but without the bit where the guy learns from his mistakes.

This has been the story of our season, again. Hibs can’t bat away the discontent with another statement about reviews and unacceptable results, we need to see something tangible happen to give us some faith that things are going to get better soon.

It’s worth noting that Don Cowie, who took over a woeful Ross County side in early February - after the transfer window had closed and with County rooted in the play-off position - has leapfrogged St Johnstone and chalked up wins over Rangers, Hearts and now Hibs in that short period. For some reason, it’s just us who seem to need multiple transfer windows and settling in time and whatever else before we start seeing results on the pitch.

Hanlon and Stevenson on their way - but club still manages to get it wrong

Off the pitch, Hibs announced the impending exits of club legends Lewis Stevenson and Paul Hanlon.

READ MORE - Paul Hanlon, Lewis Stevenson, and the fitting motto written for Hibs icons

Even then, with an overwhelming amount of goodwill messages towards the pair flooding Twitter (I’m still not calling it X), Hibs managed to crassly try to push tickets for the Motherwell game, which will be the pair’s final appearance in Hibs colours at Easter Road. It’s perhaps indicative of where the club’s priorities are at the moment that even something which should be a fairly heartwarming/heartwrenching (delete as appropriate) moment as the support come to terms with saying goodbye to two players that a lot of supporters have grown up watching, we manage to ham-fistedly try to sell something at the same time. 

On top of that it was reported that Ben Kensell told Hibs First members at an event last week that some of the infrastructure work, due to be funded by the Black Knight investment, was being shelved to focus on the first team and while in theory that sounds like a positive thing, it speaks volumes of the lacklustre approach to forward planning at the club.

We’ve had an expensive development side assembled and then farmed out on loan, with the idea sent to the scrap heap. We’ve had a Director of Football appointed who is now reportedly working solely on recruitment and now infrastructure that was needed, presumably for the betterment of the team, now deemed unnecessary so we can spend elsewhere.

And don’t start me on the managerial appointments. We’ve gone from tried and tested with Jack Ross to the novice Shaun Maloney, to the experienced Lee Johnson (500-plus games in management, don’t you know?) to the untested but up-and-coming Nick Montgomery.

What is the plan? On the face of it, this looks like throwing mud at a wall and hoping some will stick. It’s no wonder the fans are quickly losing patience with those running the club. We’re all over the place and it feels like way too much is resting on this investment being a big enough success that it papers over the numerous cracks at the club.

Here’s hoping Montgomery can get a tune out of the players for the last three games - the least that Stevenson and Hanlon deserve is to go out on a high, and you can guarantee they’ll put as much into their final kick of the ball in a Hibs jersey as they did their first.