Aberdeen 4-2 Hibs: Col faces an uphill struggle

COLIN CALDERWOOD was well aware there were problems when he took the job - few managers part company with their club with the season already under way and the outlook appears promising.

A week on and Calderwood, pictured below, will be realising the extent of the task ahead as he bids to lift Hibs from the depths of despair, that little glint of hope raised by victory over Kilmarnock vanishing as the new Easter Road boss suffered a miserable dug-out debut at Pittodrie, watching his players swamped by four Aberdeen goals in the opening hour.

If, as John Hughes' successor has claimed, he believes he has inherited talented players - and given it was pretty much the same bunch who only a year ago were taking the SPL by storm prompting talk of splitting the Old Firm while boasting, along with Rangers, the tightest defence in the country he has a sound argument - then Calderwood's efforts will be targeted at recreating that feelgood factor.

However, it won't be easy. Although many within the Easter Road dressing room would argue otherwise, confidence and morale have undoubtedly taken a bruising over the course of 2010, the statistics pointing unerringly to a team which has lost its way.

Forget, at least for the moment, the way the final few months of last season drifted, despite a fourth-place finish and the promise of Europa League football, to an unsatisfactory conclusion given the heroics during the first half of that particular campaign, and take a look at the situation today: nine games in and the miserly eight points gained having left Hibs just three off the bottom.

Optimists will argue, and with some justification, that third place is just eight points away but for the moment the immediate task facing Calderwood will simply be to steady the ship. The former Scotland defender won't have lost sight of the fact that this latest setback represented the fifth time already this season Hibs have leaked three goals or more in a match while finding the net at the other end has proved almost as problematical as keeping them out. Gone are those heady days of "You score two, we'll get three."

Calderwood, of course, was employed as manager of the team, not a miracle worker, and, as he admitted in the wake of this defeat it will take time, a commodity which is in short supply in football, to turn things round. It will, though, take longer than the three training sessions Calderwood has enjoyed with his players, the former Spurs and Aston Villa star admitting the 90 minutes in Aberdeen had revealed much more. He said: "We have to be a team rather than the good individuals that I can see we are.

"We need a wee bit of cohesion, team work and work on the training ground. More importantly, it comes from the games. I think the problems we had (against Aberdeen] you do not see during the week, that's why you need the games.

"I think in the next two or three weeks we will hopefully look as if we are moving forward results-wise."

The coming games will most certainly provide Calderwood with a steep learning curve, next up Dundee United, the trip to Tannadice to be swiftly followed by the first Edinburgh derby of the season before Hibs travel to face champions Rangers on their own patch.

It's a programme to send a shiver down the spine of even the most die-hard of Hibs supporters, one which will give Calderwood little breathing space but one which will, again, provide him with a greater insight and knowledge of the individuals under his charge, not only their footballing ability but, just as importantly, the mindset of each and every one of them.

The Hibs boss said: "I am sure that we will improve and get better results, we must. If it happens quickly that would be ideal."

In order to achieve that goal, Calderwood agreed there would be plenty of work on the training ground as he strives to get that cohesion, a team working together for the common good, each player comfortable - and capable - of fulfilling their role within the side.

To that end, Calderwood insisted that even in defeat there were pluses he could take from this match, not least the fact that although top scorer Derek Riordan started the match from the bench as he nursed heavy bruising on his calf, Hibs, despite the final scoreline, had more shots at goal than their opponents who had goalkeeper Mark Howard to thank for making important saves.

He did so to deny Colin Nish, his save prompting a rash of Hibs corners which saw Ryan Jack clear a header from the Easter Road striker off his line only for the Edinburgh club to be hit, as they so often have been, by a sucker punch, Aberdeen racing to the other end where scant cover allowed Chris Maguire the time to compose himself and drill a low shot across Mark Brown and into the far corner of the net.

Hesitant defending - Sol Bamba and Francis Dickoh looking distinctly uncomfortable in the middle of a back four which boasted four centre-halves - allowed Scott Vernon a shot which crashed off Bamba to leave Brown helpless as the ball trickled past him, two goals which saw the pressure which had been building on Mark McGhee and his players lift considerably.

Howard was to make another decisive stop just before the interval, preventing John Rankin bringing Hibs back into the match before the visiting defence was posted missing as Maguire crossed for Vernon to make it three. And when Paul Hartley netted from the spot with 30 minutes remaining, Hibs were already looking at their heaviest defeat of the season and contemplating worse to come.

It was then, however, according to Calderwood, he saw signs of what his players have within, Nish, who had also glanced a first half effort wide, rising to power home a header for his first goal of the season only to injure an ankle in the process. Calderwood said: "Big Colin was in at half-time apologising as if he had committed a crime.

"But he has been in there and had those opportunities. He looked a genuine threat/target that we can profit from when the ball is in and around him."

Bamba further narrowed the gap in the last minute to restore a little more pride but, as Calderwood acknowledged, Aberdeen had proved to be the better side over the 90 minutes. He said: "They had a terrific start to the game to get themselves ahead and again at the start of the second half. It was a super result for them, a real disappointment, a horrible result, for us but in all honesty Aberdeen did the standard things better than us."