Pat Fenlon happy with spirit in Hibs’ revival

AS ANY opinion pollster will tell you, a sample of three is not nearly enough to provide conclusive evidence of anything. In the case of Hibernian, however, their last three matches do at least offer tentative signs that better times are on the way.

Pat Fenlon’s team lie second in the table after the draw and two wins which that trio of games yielded, but more than the results themselves, the manager has been encouraged by the character shown by the team.

That character will be subjected to a different kind of test tonight, however, when Fenlon takes his squad to Dumfries for a League Cup tie with Queen of the South. Hibs have struggled against some lower-league opposition in recent years, especially away from home, but last season returned from Cowdenbeath and Ayr with Scottish Cup wins. The avoidance of complacency will be key this evening, according to the manager, who plans to make no more than two or three changes from the team which beat St Johnstone at the weekend.

“We spoke this morning about complacency, to ensure the approach is right going into the game,” Fenlon said yesterday. “In fairness, it has been right. Saturday was the first time it dropped off, but we have to make sure it’s right.

“We won’t change the team drastically. We’ll make some changes and freshen it up. A lot of the players have played in a lot of games now. There are one or two we’ll maybe leave out to freshen their legs up, and there are one or two that need to come in, prove they can play, and try and get back in the team.

“The players are in a good place at the moment. We had a disappointing start at Dundee United [an opening-day defeat], but that’s probably more down to me. Confidence is good and high. They’re looking forward to playing football matches, which is what we wanted to do – to turn the place around and get people to be confident in themselves and enjoy playing again.

“There are some good characters in there at the moment; the right type. The boys that are not playing are not happy they’re not playing, so you have to try and balance that. There is a spring in their step, but that’s with the whole club, not just the players. It’s been a tough few years for everyone working at the club, players and staff included, so there is definitely a brightness there.”

A brightness, yes, but not so blinding that Fenlon is about to get carried away. Indeed, he is sure that how his players respond to defeats in the coming months will say more about their strength of character than the effusive mood which has held sway at Easter Road over the last fortnight.

“You go through seasons and a part of it will go against you,” he continued. “Rather than buckle and fall to where we’ve been, you have to try and deal with that. That’s what I spoke about in terms of the players we bring into the club. They’re able to deal with disappointments, and deal with winning, and not get too carried away.

“If you over-analyse things it can affect them. It’s important if things go right for you, you speak about it, and if it goes the other way round, you try and work on the mistakes that have happened. But don’t overstate it.

“Here, there have been a couple of seasons of constantly hammering the players. They’ve had a bit of success now in relation to winning a couple of football matches, but that’s where we should be as a club. We should be winning football matches on a regular basis and that’s what we’ve got to get to.”

Fenlon certainly hopes he will have to wait a bit longer to find out how well his players bounce back from unexpected reverses. Having studied Queen of the South extensively over the past two days, he expects a hard-fought contest this evening, but expects his team to take their place in the last 16 – and, with a following wind, to go a good deal further in the competition which yielded them their last major trophy six seasons ago.

“We’re going there to try and win the game, It’s a competition we firmly believe we can 
win, and that’s what we’re going to try and do. You need luck on the way.”

Lewis Stevenson and Danny Galbraith are still making their way back from injury, but otherwise Fenlon has a full squad to choose from. David Wotherspoon, one of those who should retain his place in the squad, believes that Hibs should approach the game not as a special, exotic occasion, but as if it were another league match.

“We have to treat it like a 
normal league fixture and not think about them,” the midfielder said. “We need to focus on our own game and concentrate for 90 minutes.

“You have to be on your game to get through, and if you don’t perform on the day then they will be out to make an upset.”