No panic yet from David Gray as Hibs manager makes "get better" pledge in bid to kickstart season

Dejected Hibs manager David Gray after the 2-0 defeat to Celtic (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

Hibs manager David Gray is confident his team will start turning the corner after opening the league season with two successive league defeats.

The Easter Road side are still to score and they were well beaten by champions Celtic seven days before the teams meet again in the Premier Sports Cup, this time at Parkhead.

But Gray stressed there is no need to panic after the 2-0 loss. New signings have still to be bedded in and Hibs are still looking to bring Dundee skipper Luke McCowan to the club having had two bids rebuffed by the Dens Park club. Gray was asked if his team’s start worried him after last season’s disappointing campaign.

“I don’t think I would use the word worried,” he said. “It is only two league games. There is a bit of short-term pain, at the moment, for what I believe will be long-term gain. If you look over the past week, from where the squad was to where it is now, we do have competition for places. It’s not where it needs to be yet.

“We’ve got players to come back from injury, we’ve got players to join the group. And while the window is open, we’ll be trying to improve the squad. I do believe we’ll get there. I’m confident in that.

“But we got extra minutes into boys today. Kieron Bowie coming off the bench, he showed what he can do, so he’ll be an asset for us. We have got competition now. But we had a poor start last weekend, playing against Celtic will always be a test. We know we need to be better. But I believe we will be.”

Bowie showed promise in his short cameo after arriving from Fulham in a £600,000 transfer last week. “The attributes he’s got, that’s why we brought him here,” said Gray. “He has that pace and power. He enjoys the physical side – and that’s important to play here.

“Myko (Kukharevych) showed glimpses in the first half, although he’s not fully flying yet, either. So we now have strength in depth, once we get everyone up to speed.

“Kieron has come on and affected the game in a positive way,” he added. “That will continue as he gets fitter. Next weekend we need to improve on the areas where we’ve let ourselves down today. We need to be brave enough to deal with how Celtic press you.”

Gray admitted Hibs improved after half time but added that this wasn’t difficult. “Up until half-time, we carried nowhere near enough threat,” he said. “A lot of individual errors. Celtic dominated from start to finish in that 45 minutes – and we were lucky to go in just 2-0 down. The second half was more positive. We were braver on the ball, carried a bit more threat.

“We still didn’t do enough to get back in the game. I’m not shying away from that. We know we need to be better. One of the positives of going there (Celtic Park) next week is we know what to expect. And we know we need to be better.”