David Gray sends message to next Hibs manager as Barry Robson asks Aberdeen fans for patience

Hibs victory over Aberdeen proves that whoever replaces Lee Johnson is inheriting a team capable of competing at the top end of the table.

Hibs caretaker manager David Gray oversees the 2-0 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie. (Photo by Ewan Bootman / SNS Group)

That’s the opinion of interim boss David Gray who helped the Easter Road club to their first league points of the season, to move off the foot of the table, leapfrogging their hosts in the process.

With two late goals, from substitutes Adam Le Fondre and Christian Doidge, and a clean sheet, the Leith side stepped up to prove themselves just in time for the new managerial appointment, which is expected during the international break.

“I'm delighted with the three points, the performance, the effort, and the commitment from the players. Every single one of them absolutely emptied themselves and gave us everything,” said Gray, who is expected to revert back to his role as first team coach when the new manager is appointed.

"We knew our domestic form hadn't been good enough but a win against Aberdeen would take us above them in the league, which is important.

"The club was very active in the window; we have a good group and a good squad with a lot of good professionals and a range of experience and youth, so the next manager, whoever it is, will inherit a good squad capable of competing at the top end of the table.

"We've been conceding too many goals but when you look at the game, David Marshall made a great save, an important save, at 0-0 and that got us the clean sheet that we all wanted.

"That's been our main focus - being harder to beat. We know we've got quality going forward and we're always going to cause teams problems. The players really bought into that."

And, despite their slow start to the campaign, Aberdeen boss Barry Robson is bullish is his assertion that the Pittodrie side will turnaround their Premiership form and join them in the upper echelons.

With a squad rebuild and 13 new signings to integrate and get up to speed, the home boss said there was an air of fatigue as both sides tried to bounce back from tough European nights on Thursday.

“We’re on a bit of a learning curve with the European stuff and you can see that. We tried to freshen it up a lot today and get more legs in the team.

“I understand the fans want to win every game but we need a bit of patience. We’ll get better game by game. We’re in Europe and we need to accept that. The other teams we’re going to face, most of them aren’t, but we will be alright.

“You’ve seen glimpses of what we can do against Hacken and Celtic.

“I’ve heard everyone speak about Rangers’ rebuild. I’ve not heard anybody say we had eight loan players and I’ve had to start a whole new squad. We need time to get going. That was Richard Jensen’s second game, Jamie McGrath’s second game and he still looks tired, big Pape Habib Gueye’s first appearance. The goals we lost were avoidable but we’ve got two weeks [to work on things].”