Twin wins in Fife prove to Pat Fenlon that his Hibs players have bottle

PAT Fenlon believes his Hibernian squad have proven their critics wrong by showing they have the mental toughness needed to win crunch games.

Those critics include former boss Colin Calderwood, who complained about how soft his team were. That weakness seemed apparent when Fenlon took over late last year and failed to win any of his first few matches but, after returning from Fife on consecutive weekends with victories in the Scottish Cup and SPL, the current manager is delighted by the strength of character his squad have displayed.

“I think over the season maybe people have doubted the players’ commitment,” Fenlon said yesterday. “I think over the last two games they showed tremendous commitment and character.

“Cowdenbeath was a game where probably a lot of people wrote us off and it was going to be the shock of the day,” he continued, referring to Hibs’ 3-2 win in the cup. “Going to Dunfermline I heard people say that they were more up for a fight than we were, and had players that were more equipped to scrap it out than we were.

“I was pleased that the players proved them wrong. I think they proved that when it has to be scrapped out we’re capable of doing it.”

The win at East End Park – also a 3-2 result – lifted Hibs four points clear of Dunfermline at the bottom of the table and lifted the players’ spirits too after months of growing relegation worries. Fenlon has seen their improved confidence at first hand this week, but has stressed that those wins should only be regarded as a start.

“When you’re winning football matches, it helps everybody. Not just the players, but everybody in the place.

“It’s just important that there’s not a complacency and we think, just because we’ve won a couple of games, we can take our foot off the pedal. It’s a matter of keeping that up, but keeping our focus.”

Fenlon’s recipe for avoiding complacency, he added, was simple. “You just have to look at the league table and you know you can’t get away with that. You’ve got to keep performing, and working as hard as we have done, to get results.

“We got two results, but we had to work really hard for them. It’s not as if we’ve come away winning 3-0 or 4-0 or 4-1 or whatever. We’ve come away from two tough games by the odd goal, hanging on in one a little bit at the end, and scoring a late goal ourselves. It’s pleasing, but it’s just a start.”

Hibs’ game against St Johnstone tomorrow presents a different sort of problem for Fenlon: how to get a first win at home. But it will also bring fond memories for those players who were involved in the last home game against the Perth side – a 3-2 victory back in September, which remains Hibs’ sole home win in the league this season, and the only one they have managed in the past 11 months.

“Any football club will base their season on trying to be really strong at home and making it hard for teams to come to your place. That’s what we’ve got to change. Picking up home points will be vital for us in the run-in.

“It’s not a great record or something to be proud of. It’s something we’ve got to change around. The support last week was fantastic and we’re hoping we get that sort of backing again on Saturday and make it a difficult place. As far as I can remember Easter Road was always a hard place for any visiting team to come to, so it’s got to get back to that.”

Having so far only signed striker Eoin Doyle and got full-back George Francomb on loan from Norwich, Fenlon still hopes to make several additions to his squad this month. Arsenal’s 21-year-old striker Rhys Murphy is expected at East Mains next week to take part in a trial match against Partick Thistle but the manager’s priority is to bring in experience, particularly in defence and central midfield.

Fenlon has had talks with St Mirren manager Danny Lennon about Jim Goodwin and, while he refused to divulge the nature of the conversation, the 30-year-old midfielder is clearly the kind of player he is looking for. “We’re close to a couple of things at the moment and hopefully they’ll drop for us,” Fenlon added. “If they don’t, we’ll have to move on to something else. We’ll wait and see over the next 24, 48 hours, I suppose.

“We want to get a few players in to strengthen the squad. I felt we had too many players to begin with, maybe 27, 28 players. I just felt that was probably a little bit too large.

“We will try to bring players in – that’s what we’re trying to do at the moment. There are one or two areas of the team where we need to be a little stronger, probably bigger numbers in certain areas. But we’ve got some good young players as well – it’s just the wrong time at the moment to be throwing young boys in.”

In addition to being linked with players coming in, Hibs have also been the subject of persistent rumours that Garry O’Connor is about to leave. Fenlon could not give a definitive commitment that the striker would stay, but did say that O’Connor remained very much in his plans.

“He’s one we want to [stay].His attitude is first-class and he’s worked really hard over the last while to get himself right.

“On Saturday he looked back to himself a little bit more. He was sharp and aggressive and had a great finish for his goal.

“He’s definitely somebody we don’t want to lose. Everybody’s talking but no-one has spoken to us in relation to Garry. Hopefully he’ll be around for the remainder of the season.”