Celtic v Hibernian: Ian Murray remains encouraged by ‘small progress’ made at Hibs

HIBERNIAN captain Ian Murray has called on the club’s supporters to recognise signs of progress from the team, insisting they are firmly on course for a top-four finish in what he describes as a “crazy” SPL.

With Hibs having won just three of their first 12 league games to sit just three points off the bottom of the table, Murray’s upbeat assessment is likely to be treated with more than a little scepticism among those who follow the Easter Road club.

But ahead of today’s trip to face their midweek League Cup conquerors Celtic, the 30-year-old was clearly sincere in his belief that the extent of Hibs’ problems under Colin Calderwood are being exaggerated.

“We finished tenth in the league last season and we’re sitting ninth at the moment,” said Murray. “I know people don’t want to hear that, but it’s still small progress. I don’t want to drag other teams into it but I look at Dundee United, who finished fourth last season and are now sitting tenth. They lost players in the summer, as did we.

“We have a few games coming up over the next few weeks against the teams in and around about us and if we do win them, we’re sitting fourth and looking okay again. No-one wants to be sitting ninth at this stage of the season, that’s definite, but the league is so tight that’s we’re only a point off sixth place.

“It’s not the end of the world. We are six behind Hearts who are fifth and took three points off us, so everything is not all doom and gloom like people would want you to believe. We’re still very confident we’ll finish where we belong and I’m very confident we can progress to where we want to be, that’s top six.

“It’s a bit of a crazy SPL at the moment. When you look around the league, there is no-one apart from Rangers, and maybe Motherwell, who have been consistent. I don’t think Celtic would call themselves consistent, neither would Hearts.

“I probably look at it in a different way [to the fans], because I know how hard it is to be a manager and a player. Fans will rightly get frustrated and it’s up to them whether they support the team or not. For me, it was always a case of supporting the team no matter what, who was playing and what the score was. I understand the expenditure is greater now, though, and people will choose to spend their cash elsewhere.”

Optimism is certainly likely to be thin on the ground among those Hibs fans who do travel along the M8 today, having witnessed Celtic’s second-half blitzing of Murray and his team-mates at Easter Road on Wednesday night. The defender, who hopes to shake off a slight hip injury to line-up at Parkhead, admits facing Celtic so soon after the 4-1 defeat will pose mental problems for the Hibs players.

“It should not have any effect but I think everyone knows it probably does,” he said. “We know the problems they can cause, we are even more aware of it. Playing Celtic away from home, you know they will come at you from the off. We did really well in the first half on Wednesday, we were excellent and worked really hard. We limited them to as few chances as possible. But we started the second half sloppily, let in the equaliser and the heads dropped.

“We do seem to lose a lot of goals after the restart which is disappointing. People seem to believe every mistake is a mental failure, but you can’t just say everything is mental, it’s down to the team’s ability as well. You have to be able to physically match your opponent and also mentally match them and I don’t think we did that on both counts.

“But we don’t fear going to Parkhead. You know you are going to get chances in the game. We know we have the firepower to cause problems ourselves. We showed that with our strikers and that if we give them the right ammunition they will score goals.

“Celtic are difficult to play against defensively, because they have James Forrest making diagonal runs behind you or outside you with his pace, while the movement of Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes up front is very good.

“But there is no doubt – and I don’t think it’s out of place to say it – that Celtic’s attack is getting them through games at the moment. At the back, they are a bit like us. They are leaking goals, leaking bad goals at times, so they are there to be got at.”