Pat Fenlon: ‘In our situation, I’m glad players are not happy’

HIBERNIAN manager Pat Fenlon has insisted that, far from having problems with players expressing dissatisfaction, given the position the club are in he would be more concerned if they were all happy in their work.

Still seething about a report on Wednesday morning which claimed Leigh Griffiths had headbutted him and punched assistant manager Billy Brown, Fenlon labelled the story “disgusting” and “outright lies”. He refused to expand on his version of events, posted on the club website, which depicted the incident as “typical training-ground stuff”, but suggested it would not deflect the club from their goal of escaping relegation.

“Is it a happy camp?” he asked. “I hope not, because we’re second last in the league. If it’s happy then we’ve got a problem.”

• Stuart Bathgate will be online today between 3pm and 4pm to debate what’s going on at Hibs

He added that he would not try to use the report to build a siege mentality among the squad, but hinted that this week’s appointment of Jim Jefferies as Dunfermline manager might have led one or more elements of the media to exaggerate Hibs’ problems.

“You can read into things whatever way you like. It coincides with Dunfermline having a new manager as well, so it might suit certain people to be able to print stuff like that.

“But it’s just about us at the moment working hard and I haven’t had a complaint about that. It’s about making sure we stay in the league.

“I don’t look at things like creating a siege mentality.

“I think you get yourself out of these situations by being honest with yourself and working hard. That’s all we can do. I can’t control things that happen outside, but, when it does, you’d like there to be some element of truth about them. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

“Since I’ve come here I have been honest and open with everybody in the press. I have done every interview and spoken to everybody as honestly as I can, but what happened yesterday changes that opinion, because it was disgusting. It’s downright lies and it’s disgusting. That’s it, it’s finished. I only want to talk about the game and nothing else. If we don’t talk about the game then we don’t talk.”

The appointment of former Hearts manager Jefferies at the Pars has heightened interest in the relegation battle, in which Hibs are currently four points clear of the Fife club. It has been seen for some time as only a two-club battle but Fenlon suggested that, over the coming weeks, the plot might thicken with more teams being dragged into it.

“I honestly think over the next few weeks ourselves and Dunfermline might pull one or two more into it, to be honest. I’m sure Dunfermline will be thinking the same thing, that if they can win a couple of games over the next two or three weeks it might change the whole complexion of the bottom six.

“So we are not just looking behind us, we are looking ahead to see if we can get a bit closer to one or two others before the split.

“Then we’ll see which way the bottom-six fixtures come out and the fact ourselves and Dunfermline have been scrapping away for a while might count to our advantage.

“Whereas, if one or two teams come from what they thought was a comfortable position suddenly into a relegation battle, it’s hard to make that mentality change.”

Dunfermline would appear to have less daunting opponents tomorrow, when they are at home to bottom-six side St Mirren at East End Park, while Hibs welcome fourth-placed Dundee United to Easter Road.

Much has been made of Dunfermline’s inability to win a league match at home this season, but Hibs’ record is only marginally better – they have just one home win in the SPL, against St Johnstone back in September, when Colin Calderwood was still in charge.

Fenlon expects his team will need to be close to their best against United to record a second home success.

United are a side he feels have benefited from continuity of selection over the past few months, and he said: “I think outside Celtic they are the form team in the league and they have been fantastic. Looking at the team we played against on Christmas Eve, not much has changed in their line-up and that’s a big help to any manager to be able to pick the same guys week in, week out.

“We have three big games ahead with United, Inverness and Motherwell, but two of them are at home and we will look to use that to our advantage.

“They are decent games to look forward to and we have to improve our home record.

“The players have been excellent since they have been here in relation to their work rate and application to everything they have done. I have no complaints from that point of view.”

Griffiths remains in the squad for tomorrow’s game, while Ivan Sproule and Isaiah Osbourne are available again after missing Sunday’s 2-0 defeat by Hearts through suspension. George Francomb has resumed training after being taken off in that game with a head cut, while captain James McPake is a doubt with a back strain.