Fenlon puzzled over ‘peculiar’ scheduling of crucial fixtures

THERE has been nothing easy about the job that has faced Pat Fenlon since he arrived at Hibs earlier this season, and he says the fixture scheduling has done nothing to make life any simpler.

Following on from their Sunday fixture last weekend, the Easter Road club will spend the rest of April playing their league games a day later than their main relegation rivals. They will follow up that run of Sunday kick-offs with a midweek trip to Pittodrie, while their head-to-head with the only club currently below them has been ear-marked for a Monday night to accommodate broadcasters.

The fact that television considerations are being given greater priority than his club’s desires has aggrieved the Hibs manager as he tries to ensure SPL survival.

“It makes you wonder why we have been made to play another three times after Dunfermline. I have got my own ideas on that but I will keep them to myself. It’s peculiar, very peculiar.

“It did work in our favour last week but I don’t think that, at this stage of the season, whether it’s at the top or bottom of the table, it should be happening. You could understand if it happened once, but another three times in a row is a bit hard to take to be honest.”

“Obviously the TV are hoping that it will come down to that day [against Dunfermline on 7 May] but we hope that they are disappointed and their figures are down drastically. It would be good from our point of view if nobody was watching it because by then there’s nothing to play for.

“If we get there it would be great but we have just got to make sure that we focus on ourselves and do our own work so that whatever anyone else is doing outside of here can’t affect us.”

Last Sunday’s win at Inverness gave the Edinburgh outfit a six-point advantage over the East End Park side with six games remaining and it also put Terry Butcher’s men within their sights. The mood around the club has been lightened as a consequence, says Fenlon, who is far from complacent despite his men easing themselves another step closer to safety in the league, with a Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen to follow next weekend.

“It’s just important that we focus on our job and not get carried away with other things,” he added. “Over the last six to eight weeks they’ve all been big games. We’ve got a massive five or six weeks left to be honest.

“We’ve just got to make sure that we stay in this league. If we get to the cup final then it’s a massive help to us. But the priority is that we win enough league games to remain in this division. That’s really all I am focused on at the moment.

“The results at the weekend went our way and so it has been a bit chirpier this week and we have had everyone training. It has been a good week.

“What you have got to take out of last weekend is belief. We know that they can perform to those levels, it is just a case of trying to get them to build on that and play like that for longer periods of a game to give us a better chance of winning them.”

This weekend they will aim to do that on home turf, when they face Motherwell tomorrow. In 16 SPL games at Leith this season, Hibs have won just once. It is no surprise then that they find themselves at the wrong end of the table, says Fenlon. However, he points out that it is not too late to so something about improving that grim statistic.

“We haven’t won enough games at home and it is a necessity that we break that routine and make sure that we can pick up some more points at Easter Road between now and the end of the season,” he added.

“I think that our away form is probably as good as anyone’s but we have got to win home matches. We’ve got three left and we have got to make sure that we win as many as we can. Getting three points is massive for us at this stage of the season.

“The league is the really important thing here. If we can get to the cup final it will be a massive plus for everyone involved with the club in every way – financially and for the players and supporters – but making sure that we pick up league points is really where it’s at for us right now.”