Stevenson reveals fans’ letter to players provided spur for crucial victory

A LETTER from a group of supporters helped inspire Hibernian to victory in Fife on Saturday, according to Lewis Stevenson. Poor performances had led to the fans booing the team in some matches, and that had undermined confidence. But the midfielder explained that the letter had assured the players that the fans would give them their full backing as long as they showed they were committed to the club – and it worked at the weekend as an away support of more than 2,000 cheered Hibs on to a 3-2 win.

“We all got letters from a group of supporters,” Stevenson said. “We got told that they’ll sort out the boo boys, kind of thing, if we can show a bit more commitment and show that we respect the fans, which obviously we do. I think they maybe felt a bit distanced, the supporters, and there was a bit of a divide.

“They’re paying their hard-earned money to come and watch us, and we need to prove to them that it means so much. It does help a lot when they give us an ovation like that.

“We’ve put them through a lot this season and they’ve stuck by us as much as they can. They’ve given us stick but you have to understand that. If I was up there, I’d be giving us stick as well.

“We were trying to get them more involved before the game as well, and they gave us a great ovation at the start. It just seemed more positive today and hopefully they could see that we gave 100 per cent commitment.”

Stevenson acknowledged that the match had not been of the highest quality, but said that the result had been by far the most important thing. “I’m sure it was a better game to watch than it was to play in. When you’re playing in midfield the ball seems to keep going over your head, specially when you’re 5ft 8in. But I’m happy to get a win, and it’s a great relief. I feared the worst when they scored early on, then when it got to 2-2 I thought that was the game finished. Then when we scored it felt like there was half an hour after that.

“The win at Cowdenbeath [in the Scottish Cup last week] maybe helped us, even though that wasn’t a great performance either. You need to take the win however it comes.

“The most important thing is we get results. But if we can start playing nice football and looking good at the same time, that’s the objective.”

Hibs began tentatively and fell behind after a piece of slack defending, but Stevenson argued that such a start might actually have helped them. There are a lot of games where we’ve scored early and it’s been our downfall. We’ve been hanging on after that and it’s not worked for us.

“Losing that goal early on gave us a kick up the backside and I thought we looked all right after that. We created a few chances and looked more relaxed. We started passing it more after they scored and that’s the way we want to play.”

The win has taken the Edinburgh club four points clear of Dunfermline, who have a game in hand. Stevenson knows that, no matter the boost has given his own side, they cannot presume that they are now safe and the threat of relegation has evaporated.

“I’ve never been in that position in all the years I’ve been here, but it happens with a lot of clubs. We just need to get through this sticky patch. Hibs are a big club and we shouldn’t be getting relegated, but it happens to big clubs all the time.”