Marc McNulty: I must impress new Hibs boss like everyone else

Marc McNulty admits he was shocked by Neil Lennon's departure at Hibs.

His concerns were quickly quelled and, having aligned himself to his boyhood club until the end of the season, the striker is looking  forward to trying to impress whoever takes over.

“I heard from a mate who had put it on the group chat. I’m local and a lot of my mates are Hibs fans and they had put it on the group chat that Neil was away. To be honest, I hadn’t really told any of them at that time that Hibs were interested because it wasn’t 100 per cent, so it was a bit of a shock, but I spoke to other people at the club, who were working behind the scenes, and they made it clear how much they still wanted me.”

Joining Hibs because his £1 million summer move to Reading from Coventry turned sour when a new manager arrived at the Madejski Stadium and deemed the 26-year-old and several others surplus to requirements, it would have been understandable if he had decided to  bodyswerve a club in a state of flux. But he is backing himself to win over whoever replaces Lennon, insisting that every player in Hibs’ dressing room is in the same position.

“You have to believe that you will be good enough in training to prove to the manager that you should be playing. But it is the same with every player here and, with the new manager coming, it’s a clean slate for every one of us.”

With the club close to an appointment, a bright  performance at Celtic Park tonight would stand McNulty in good stead, especially if he can become the first player to score against the double-treble winners in 2019. He sees no reason to be fearful of the challenge.

“I have been in England for a good few years now and been lucky enough to play in FA Cup games against Premier League teams, so I have played in games where we were massive underdogs but that’s a good thing because you can go out and play with a bit of freedom. You’ve not got much to lose, so you can go for it.”

A decade ago, McNulty was crushed to be released by Hibernian but time has offered perspective and the experience imbued him with even greater drive. Looking back, he says it could be viewed as a positive and, now back for another stab at success, he hopes that his latest association will ultimately prove just as beneficial.

“I don’t like to go to a club and come away feeling that I haven’t done very well. So you could say this is a second chance to do well here.

“The manager and the head of youth at that time decided that I wasn’t ready for full- time football. These things happen and, looking back, it was probably a blessing. Look, at the time, I thought it was the end of the world. I was 15 or 16 and I wanted to leave school and be a professional footballer.

“That can go one of two ways, but I was lucky that I had good people round about me who kept pushing me the right way. It would have been very easy to say ‘that’s me done, I’m not going to make it’. That incident helped him hone his inner resilience and realise that his dream was worth fighting for. Picked up by Livingston, it also taught him that, while one coach may not rate you, others will, which is something that has served him well .

That is why, when he reached another crossroads, and was suddenly shut out of the Reading first team and left to change in a Portacabin away from the guys he had, only days earlier, called team-mates, he simply looked for a solution and a way to prove himself all over again.

The 28 goals he scored and the performances delivered as he helped Coventry to promotion last season back up that belief, as does the £1m fee paid by Jose Gomes’ predecessor for the Scot who is looking to help Hibs up the league table before the loan deal expires and he has to consider his options again in the summer.

“That’s football. I’m not the first person it has happened to and I’m sure I won’t be the last,” he said. “It can be difficult when there’s a change of manager, especially when the club maybe doesn’t have a certain philosophy. But Hibs have a way of playing, they play attacking football. I don’t think they are going to bring in a manager who plays one up front and defends for 90 minutes and tries to score a goal.

“It was just a matter of picking the right club. I think Hibs have a style of playing that will suit me and that was big reason for me coming.”