Hibs' Martin Boyle suffers sleepless night after St Mirren win as talisman explains how Nick Montgomery is making team tick

Martin Boyle scored twice in Hibs' win over St Mirren - but he thinks it should have been more.

“I’m very disappointed and it is going to chew me up all night!” Boyle said in the wake of the win that booked a date with Aberdeen. “But, to be fair, it was nice to score two goals. The first half I was pretty non-existent so in the second half it was good to show up!”

Annoyed with himself for taking too long to get going in the 4-2 victory, in a second half showing where Hibs stroked the ball about with ease other than a short dip when the Paisley side grabbed their second goal, Boyle was the matchwinner. And, having booked another journey to the national stadium on November 4, where they will face Dons with a place in the December 17 final at stake, he is hoping he can repeat the performance that saw him grab a treble and the headlines the last time he played at Hampden in the last four of the League Cup.

“I would certainly take that again!” Boyle smiled. “It was a good occasion for me and for the club. I would be happy with any sort of victory but a performance like that, individually, would be great and I can certainly hope.”

Boyle and Hibs are enjoying life under the tutelage of Nick Montgomery.

That was back in November 2021, when the talismanic Socceroo ripped Rangers apart with three first-half goals as the Easter Road side extended their decent record of progressing to the latter stages of the competition. In the end they lost out to St Johnstone but Boyle believes they have every reason to believe they can go all the way this season, with the performance against in-form St Mirren an indication of their capabilities.

“It is definitely what we strive to achieve every season,” he continued. “We had a good spell over the past few years of getting there but last year we definitely underachieved. It is always good to get there and I feel like we deserved it tonight. It was a very important win and it’s great to have another trip to Hampden. The fans can look forward to that, we can look forward to it. There is a lot of work to be done before then but we can definitely look forward to the occasion.”

Under the guidance of a new manager, Boyle says there is excitement at the way the new tactics are coming together and the scoring opportunities that shift towards a more passing, forward-facing dynamic is helping the team manufacture.

“The new manager has come in and given us a new lease of life,” Boyle explained. “He has different tactics and we are obviously just getting used to that. It’s good to get on the ball and create like I always try to do. He has been fantastic and I think we are enjoying the tactics he’s brought in. Training has been long and he has changed a lot around the place. He is definitely instilling in us the way he wants to play and I think you can see that in the last few games. We are playing out from the back and creating a lot of chances, and we are scoring a lot of goals which is great.

Boyle has hailed the impact of fellow striker Adam Le Fondre, left.

“It is amazing to play in. There is so much flair and I just found out that Dylan [Vente] has had five shots and scored five goals so that’s a pretty good stat, isn’t it? We just need to get him into the box more often! Obviously, his link up play is fantastic, Elie [Youan], his pace is electric, Christian Doidge, we know what he brings, and Alfie [Adam Le Fondre] is an experienced player and helps us a lot around the place and his link-up play and experience is very important to us. We are all striving towards the same goal.

“We have players who can cause a lot of teams problems. We are still near the start of our journey and we still need to adapt to how the manager wants us to play. It is a new style but I feel we’ve taken the information on well and implemented it well. Hopefully, we can keep progressing.

“We have got to be confident [of getting past Aberdeen and challenging for the cup]. We are scoring a lot of goals at the minute which is good. We are getting a lot of chances and if we weren't creating all those chances then there would be an issue but we are playing good football at the moment and getting into good positions”

There have been goals in the most recent outings as Hibs catapulted themselves up the league standings and navigated another cup tie, with three wins and a draw since the beginning of the month. But there have been even more openings created, which is why boss Nick Montgomery called for composure at half-time on Wednesday.

“He just said we should stay patient,” said Boyle, who now has seven goals in 14 appearances for club and country this term. “We worked hard in training and we knew that they would sit behind the ball. They were 1-0 up away from home so we needed to remain patient and try to shift them around and try to get into positions to score goals. We got off to a great start [after the break] with the early goal and we dominated after that. We did concede a sloppy goal but it was great character from the lads to get the reaction.

“I think it was a great game for the neutral and fantastic for us. But we believe it is just the beginning for us and hopefully we can keep progressing.“