Hibs reaction: Dejected David Gray reveals area of concern and responds to recruitment poser
Hibs head coach David Gray admitted concern to the "softness" that his team showed in Sunday's 3-0 defeat by St Mirren at the SMiSA Stadium.
The Hibees suffered a horrendous start to the league campaign under their new manager by conceding three goals in a sub-standard second half, with Gray labelling the defeat "unacceptable". The away end was packed out with expectant Hibs fans but by the full-time whistle, only a few were left after a dismal afternoon in Paisley.
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Hide Ad“It was certainly a game of two halves, that’s for sure," said Gray, "And, as soon as you see the result, the performance becomes irrelevant. Because to lose the game 3-0 is unacceptable for us. That’s on everything.
“If I try to strip it back and look at the first half performance, we created enough chances to be in front in the game, so there are a lot of positives to take from that. The fact that we’re creating the chances is great – and we limited them to very little.
“To then concede straight after half-time, that is very avoidable, the goal we lose. I thought there was a softness to the goals we lost. And not just one thing but three or four things in the moves to the goals we lose.
“The second goal is just a genuine mistake, which happen in games. Then the reaction from that, to go and lose the third goal in the manner we did, it was so avoidable from the top end of the pitch – there were three or four things we could have done to affect that better.


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Hide Ad“So there are definite areas where we can’t accept that. Especially the third goal, we shouldn’t lose that – because then the game is gone. We huffed and puffed at times, had a few half chances. But the damage had been done at that point."
Asked if he was concerned by the softness his team showed, Gray continued: “Of course it’s a concern. It’s a concern when you lose goals. It’s not something I’ve seen in the games we’ve played so far. Take the second goal out of it, because that’s a misplaced pass. But look at the other goals. One comes straight after half-time. You look at it and there are three or four mistakes leading to that goal.
“I tell the players all the time not to let one mistake become two mistakes. Because three mistakes usually results in a goal. That was evident today, as you see.”
Hibs added striker Mykola Kuharevych on loan from Swansea over the weekend but the defeat against St Mirren highlighted how light the team is in certain areas. Asked if the result pressed the need for more recruits, Gray replied: "I think there's more work to be done all the time. Regardless of players coming, regardless of any of that, the performance that we had - especially in the first half - showed that what was in the squad is good enough.
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Hide Ad"I think we need to be better in both boxes. I'd be much more concerned if we weren't creating any chances, we just need to be more clinical when they do come, because at this level we're not going to get five, six, seven chances to convert. That was evident today."


Gray refused to divulge the manner of conversations between him and the players in the immediate aftermath but admitted standards will need to be raised ahead of facing Celtic next weekend. "I think that's something that stays between me and the players," he said. "I don't think that's got anything to do with anyone else.
"I think it's pretty clear from the feeling in the dressingroom after the match that they know that it wasn't good enough. Moving forward, the standards that we set in pre-season, the standards that we talk about and the expectations of this football club, we fell below in the second half. It's something we need to rectify very quickly because it doesn't get any easier in the coming weeks, that's for sure."
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