New man at helm but pressure all on players, insists Stanton

Hibs legend Pat Stanton last night insisted the pressure now passes to the players at Easter Road following the appointment of Pat Fenlon as the club’s ninth manager in a decade.

Stanton has been critical of the performances of the team in recent times and admits he still harbours doubts over whether the current squad is good enough to deliver the turnaround being demanded by disgruntled supporters.

And the former club skipper, manager and lifelong supporter of the club believes the key to Fenlon’s success will be getting a response from the players he has inherited from Colin Calderwood.

The 67-year-old, a descendant of Michael Whelahan, one of the club’s founders and first captain, said: “It is a fresh start and I hope he does well. Hopefully everybody gets behind the man and, given a wee break here or there, then hopefully he will do well.

“But it’s a big football club and it’s not just down to one individual. He’s coming from Irish football and, although I’m sure he’ll have a good idea about the Scottish game, he’ll have to listen to people and advice.

“But what he requires more than anything else is a response from the players. That’s the only one that matters, and I hope he gets it.

“At this point, the pressure goes on to the players. It’s about time they stood up and responded to the demands being made of them.

“John Hughes left and Colin Calderwood left and now we’ve got the new man in, but some of the players that were there before are still there.

“I’ve said before that I have my doubts about some of them but hopefully I can be proved wrong. The most important thing is that the players have got to respond to the new manager.”

Easter Road has not been a happy place for the first-team squad in recent weeks, with boos being the order of the day as the team have stumbled from one poor result to another on home soil.

The 1-0 defeat to Dunfermline on 5 November – the Pars’ only victory in their last 12 outings – proved the last straw for angry fans, whose protests helped speed the sacking of Calderwood a day later.

However, Stanton insists the supporters will be won over if the team can show a positive response under Fenlon.

He added: “The fans don’t go to games to criticise. They want to see the team winning and playing some good stuff. In the present situation they need to get a few results under their belt, and that all comes down to the players.

“The fans will respond if they see the players doing their best and we can’t lose sight of the fact that some players have not been performing for the manager.”