If football is a game of two halves then for Hibs, this season was a campaign of two (and a bit) managers and in the end, it was probably apt that such a forgettable season culminated in a drab 1-1 draw away to the team already relegated from the Scottish Premiership.
While taking nothing away from Livingston, who kept going until the end in a bid to finish their six-season spell in the top flight on a relatively high note, the game was the Easter Road side's campaign in microcosm: some good stuff going forward, some ropey defensive work, a failure to take chances coming back to haunt them, and an instantly forgettable 90 minutes.
Speaking to the media ahead of the trip to West Lothian, talismanic winger Martin Boyle didn't mince his words when he said he would 'quite like to see the back of' the 2023/24 campaign, on a personal and collective level, adding: "The majority of the fans will feel the same; it has not been great."
There wasn't an 'Understatement of the Season' award at Hibs' low-key Player of the Year bash following the Livingston draw but had there been such a gong, you'd imagine Boyle would have been hot favourite to win it - but his point stands: it was a season high in fizzle and low in sparkle; a campaign with no statement wins, too many drab draws, and two different permanent managers.
You could split the season into three clear sections encompassing Lee Johnson's descent to the point of no return, the Nick Montgomery months, and David Gray's interim stewardship for a third and fourth time.
Johnson's Jekyll and Hyde side
Hibs had come within a coat of paint of finishing above Hearts the previous season, Will Fish's header at Tynecastle finding the post rather than the back of the net as the rivals played out a 1-1 draw that culminated in a post-match rammy on the pitch and led to red cards for Johnson and unused substitute Rocky Bushiri of Hibs, and Hearts' back-up goalie Ross Stewart and goalie coach Paul Gallacher.
Despite that, there was a feeling of positivity in the summer. Hibs were back in Europe, they had raked in £2 million for Kevin Nisbet, spent big on Dylan Levitt and Élie Youan and brought in Adam Le Fondre, Jordan Obita, a new back-up goalie in Jojo Wollacott, and the arrival of striker Dylan Vente from Roda for a reported £700,000. The second half of 2022/23 had been notably better than the first, so surely it was merely a case of picking up where they left off?
READ MORE - How can Hibs reinvigorate Dylan Vente after hit-and-miss debut campaign?
But we hadn't even made it into August before the knives were out, following a shock 2-1 defeat by Inter Club d'Escaldes in Andorra, in the first leg of the UEFA Europa Conference League second qualifying round. Hibs had played four pre-season friendlies as part of their preparations; a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over Edinburgh City at Meadowbank followed by a 2-0 victory over Europa of Gibraltar and a 4-0 defeat by Bournemouth during the club's summer training camp in Spain, and a 2-1 victory over Dutch side Groningen at Easter Road. But despite six different players scoring in those games, it took a late free kick by Joe Newell to give Hibs a lifeline going into the second leg at Easter Road.
Video emerged on social media of Hibs fans who had made the trek to the Pyrenees jeering the team as the players trooped off the pitch at the Estadi Comunal d'Andorra la Vella, accompanied by a sea of middle-finger salutes, while one scunnered supporter shouted in bewilderment, 'All this f*****g way!' Johnson's gesture that the fans should 'calm down' as he left the pitch was like a red rag to a bull and was met by louder, more incensed booing and suggestions of where he should go, while one fan succinctly bellowed, 'Sh*te!'
It was not the auspicious start to the continental campaign Hibs had hoped for.
Two days later Hibs were due in Blackpool for their final pre-season friendly. Despite the result in Andorra around 2,500 fans travelled down to Lancashire and while the hosts comfortably won 3-0 there was a long-awaited return to action for Boyle, who had been out since October 2022 with injury, in a much-changed Hibs side with eight academy players featuring as well. Perhaps wisely, given what had transpired two days earlier, Johnson was kept away from post-match media duties with assistant Adam Owen speaking to the press. To no great surprise, Hibs comprehensively defeated Inter Club in the return leg five days later, setting up a third qualifying round meeting with Luzern of Switzerland.
Hosting St Mirren in the first Scottish Premiership game of the season looked like it would be adequate preparation, but two goals in two minutes from Mark O'Hara and Toyosi Olusanya gave the Buddies a two-goal lead inside 20 minutes. Although Le Fondre and Christian Doidge clawed Hibs back into it with fewer than ten minutes remaining, Alex Greive scored a late winner, in what would be the first of a number of goals lost late on in games in a pattern that would largely define Hibs' campaign.
Despite losing in such a fashion, Hibs produced an excellent performance on Thursday night, with goals from Newell, Vente on his debut, and Obita giving them a 3-1 victory over Luzern. It was an impressive performance but they were unable to build on it at the weekend, losing 2-1 away to Motherwell, which made their battling 2-2 draw in Switzerland all the more impressive, as they set up a glamour tie in the play-off round against Aston Villa just one two-legged tie away from the group stages. They warmed up for the 'Battle of Britain' clash with a routine 2-1 win against Raith Rovers in the League Cup, but Unai Emery's slick Villans showed no mercy at Easter Road, with Ollie Watkins hitting a hat-trick and Leon Bailey and a Douglas Luiz penalty ending the tie as a contest after the first leg.
Lee Johnson paid the price for woeful league form despite (mostly) decent performances in Europe (Image: SNS Group)
The following Sunday brought with it a home game against Livingston, who had recorded a goalless draw with Aberdeen and a 4-0 defeat by Rangers in their first two games; so surely there was a chance for Hibs not just to bounce back from the pain of a five-goal tanking at the hands of Villa, but also to kickstart their league season.
Johnson made five changes from the team that had started on Thursday night, starting centre-back Riley Harbottle at right-back and dropping Vente, Paul Hanlon, Lewis Stevenson, and Josh Campbell for Bushiri, Doidge, Allan Delferriere, and Jimmy Jeggo. In hindsight, such a clutch of changes should have set the alarm bells ringing.
There were just eight minutes on the clock when Obita knocked James Penrice's cross into his own net as he attempted to clear the centre, and it didn't really improve from there. Harbottle unsurprisingly struggled in an unfamiliar position, Bushiri and Fish didn't have too many minutes playing as a centre-back pairing, and Hibs looked devoid of ideas until Boyle equalised out of nowhere. But Livingston went straight up the other end and retook the lead just two minutes later and Mo Sangare added a superb third with 15 minutes remaining. Substitute Campbell pulled one back following a stramash in the box but Livingston held on for their first of just five league wins all season.
Speaking afterwards, Johnson bemoaned the concession of easy goals and things 'not going Hibs' way' - sound familiar? - but vowed to turn things around. He wasn't given the chance, however, and was relieved of his duties on the Monday with Gray taking charge of the team for the return leg against Aston Villa and a trip to Pittodrie the following Sunday.
The first-team coach, completing his third interim spell in charge, ensured Hibs were at least competitive in Birmingham. A 3-0 victory wasn't entirely surprising but it restored a modicum of pride to a struggling team, and he then led them to a rare victory against Aberdeen in the Granite City, Le Fondre and Doidge netting in a 2-0 win.
The Montgomery Months
When it became clear that Gray wasn't going to get the job on a permanent basis in September - and being honest, there was probably little chance of that happening - there was a clamour for Hibs to get the appointment right. Since sacking Jack Ross, an experienced manager with knowledge of the Scottish game who had led Hibs to third, the board had appointed Shaun Maloney, highly respected in coaching circles but inexperienced as a manager in his own right, and then Johnson, who had plenty of experience in England that didn't quite transfer to the Scottish game - although looking back now it could be argued that his time was - minimally, granted - more of a success than the man who followed.
With Johnson gone the right man needed to be sourced so there was surprise, and intrigue, when Hibs headhunted former Sheffield United man Nick Montgomery, a one-time Scotland Under-21 cap who had earned plaudits for his remarkable success with Central Coast Mariners in the A-League.
Nick Montgomery is unveiled as Hibs head coach (Image: SNS Group)
What was interesting was Montgomery admitting to a little trepidation over Hibs' tendency to hire and fire managers with relative haste; spookily prescient, given what transpired. But the uncertainty was two-fold with Hibs fans unsure of his credentials despite his work with the Mariners.
Things started well enough and it was hard to fault the coaching staff's desire to introduce an identity, something that had been sorely lacking at Hibs in recent seasons.
The team chucked a two-goal lead away to Kilmarnock in Montgomery's first game in charge but fans were forgiving and attributed the failings to the team being in transition and a lack of time with the players owing to the international break.
Youan celebrates after scoring the first of his two-goal salvo in Gorgie (Image: SNS Group)
Two victories in four days over St Johnstone and St Mirren in the League Cup quarter-finals looked very much like things were going in the right direction and even a goalless draw against Dundee in which Hibs battered the visitors was chalked up to 'just one of those days' by many fans. In the following game, Youan's 86-second brace at Tynecastle to rescue a point in the first Edinburgh derby of the season sparked hopes that a corner had indeed been turned.
READ MORE - Elie Youan, the underappreciated enigma heading for a potential Hibs exit
A comprehensive defeat by Rangers at Ibrox was followed up by a respectable goalless draw with Celtic at Easter Road but in the space of eight days Hibs surrendered a two-goal lead at home to Ross County, lost to ten-men Aberdeen in the League Cup semi-final, and lost another late goal at St Mirren. This pattern became de rigueur for Hibs, despite a mini-revival that saw them win four of their next five, the one defeat being a 4-1 reversal at Celtic Park.
But morale-sapping back-to-back 1-0 defeats by St Johnstone in Perth and Hearts at Easter Road set the tone for the remainder of the season. Hibs barely staggered through January, a host of injuries and players on international duty leaving the squad paper-thin and relying on teenagers. A mid-season break in Dubai failed to yield the desired change in fortune and Hibs had to rely on a trademark scrappy goal by Doidge to see off a plucky Forfar side in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup. This was followed by a dismal 3-0 home defeat by Rangers. Hibs and Kilmarnock traded places from Montgomery's debut as Myziane Maolida climbed off the bench to hit an equaliser as Hibs fought back from two goals down at Rugby Park, but a 3-0 defeat by St Mirren at Easter Road in early February was comfortably the team's worst performance of the season - at least until Aberdeen came calling in mid-May.
Against all odds, Hibs hauled themselves off the canvas four days later and came close to taking a point off Celtic but again, the loss of an injury-time goal, this time from a penalty, was their undoing. Again, they embarked on a run of five games without defeat, including another draw against Hearts that could have been a victory, and safe passage in the Scottish Cup despite a tricky away tie at Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Further victories followed against Livingston and St Johnstone but most of Hibs' goals and indeed points between the St Mirren debacle and the end of the season were down to Maolida, whose January arrival was something of a cheat code for Hibs. The Hertha Berlin loanee had a difficult start to life in the capital but could soon be relied on to pop up with a goal in virtually every game. Nathan Moriah-Welsh, another January addition, added a bit of steel to a midfield needing freshening up while Nectar Triantis, signed as a centre-back, showed more in a ball-playing defensive midfield role.
Despite a terse statement issued by the board in the aftermath of the team's failure to finish in the top six, it seemed as though Montgomery might get the summer to work with the incoming sporting director and bring in his own players, capable of playing the way he wanted. This feeling strengthened with a tidy 3-1 victory over St Johnstone in the first post-split game but a 2-1 defeat by Ross County, with another late goal conceded, was the final straw for some fans and when Aberdeen who, like Hibs, had endured a difficult campaign, strolled to a 4-0 victory at Easter Road, the writing was on the wall - or more accurately, the boos were in the stands.
Nick Montgomery with Emiliano Marcondes after the Aberdeen defeat (Image: SNS Group)
Caretaker Gray
You feel for Gray, who has now had four separate spells in interim charge, during which he is inevitably asked questions he cannot answer. Most of Scotland's football journalists already have his prepared response of, 'I don't know any more than you; I've been asked to do a job and I'll continue to do that to the best of my ability until I'm told otherwise' on a word document ready to copy and paste into their articles, such is the predictability of the former Easter Road captain's response.
And it's not a criticism; in some ways, he is the ideal man to step into the breach precisely because of his experience as club captain, and because he can be trusted to toe the party line. Whether or not he has what it takes to do the job on a permanent basis remains to be seen.
Would Hibs be in a better place with Gray in the driving seat? (Image: SNS Group)
There was an obvious response after the Dons defeat, Hibs sweeping Motherwell aside 3-0 in Paul Hanlon and Lewis Stevenson's final home appearance but the team reverted to type four days later in West Lothian.
Lessons to be learned?
Like all too many Hibs campaigns in the past twenty or so years, this season will be filed firmly in the 'forgettable' category - even if there were enough incidents that will undoubtedly be brought up time and time again in the future as examples.
As for Montgomery, he lacked a statement win and perhaps a bit of pragmatism, particularly during the difficult winter spell. He knew Hibs would be a project; a long-term piece of work, but possibly tried to introduce too much too quickly. An identity was badly needed but Hibs lacked the personnel for his favoured 442 set-up. By the time he reverted to the 4231 often favoured by Johnson, it was too little, too late. To his credit, he handed out debuts to several academy players but ended up playing them out of necessity. Had Hibs been going great guns all season it would have been a virtually universally popular move. In the end, it was another stick with which to beat him.
Montgomery departed having recorded one league win apiece against an Aberdeen side in freefall, Kilmarnock, and Dundee. He defeated Livingston and St Johnstone twice each, and Ross County once - all of whom finished well below Hibs in the table.
Fans grew to resent his press conferences and felt that, with the players at his disposal, results and performances should have been better. The tendency to lose goals and points from the 75th minute onwards hampered any hopes of progress and raised questions about the players' fitness levels.
READ MORE - Nick Montgomery says he left Hibs 'in a better place' as he considers next move
Refereeing decisions and injuries undoubtedly played a part in a disappointing campaign but purely on the basis that Hibs were bottom when he took the reins, Montgomery's claim after his exit that he left the club in a better state than he found it does have some merit.
But there are undoubtedly lessons to be learned from his tenure. The hierarchy, deservedly taking flak from fans for the last couple of seasons, must get the next appointment right. Bringing in Malky Mackay as sporting director to work closely with the Black Knights - who appointed their own president of football operations last week in Tiago Pinto - could be a step in the right direction, especially given the requirement for smart activity in the transfer window.
READ MORE - What Tiago Pinto appointment at Bournemouth might mean for Hibs
What is concerning is that the very same problems highlighted by Johnson after the 3-2 defeat by Livingston in August were still harming Hibs at the Tony Macaroni Arena in May. While there are lessons to be learned from Montgomery's reign, it seems other lessons haven't been learned - yet.
Hibs cannot afford too many more seasons like 2023/24 - they've already had far too many in recent years. The onus is on the club to get it right in terms of the head coach appointment and summer recruitment and mend what is a fractious relationship with the fanbase. If they can manage all that then perhaps Hibs might be able to drag themselves out of this ongoing quagmire.
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