Terry Butcher content with Hibs point at St Mirren

Terry Butcher acknowledges the crowd in his first game in charge as Hibs manager. Picture: SNS

Both sides battled out a goalless draw in the Scottish Premiership clash in Paisley, with the home side edging the best of the chances.

But, having ended a run of four straight defeats before he took over the hotseat, Butcher is confident he has a solid foundation to build on.

He said: “Satisfactory is a good word, it was very satisfactory for me.

“It’s a good solid start as far as we are concerned. We got a clean-sheet and we got the ball forward well.

“I thought we dominated in the second half and just couldn’t get that goal that the Hibs fans were craving.

“I thought they were going to suck it into the net at one stage but it didn’t quite go in.

“I’m delighted because we didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t know what we were going to get.

“But I thought, the more the game went on, the more cohesive they became, the more the understanding was there, the more we played in St Mirren’s half.

“We wanted to give ourselves a platform and a foundation to work on and we certainly started that today.”

Asked if his side could have had a penalty when James Collins went to ground under a Darren McGregor challenge, Butcher said: “The sun was in my eyes.

“I think it was in (referee) Steven McLean’s eyes as well.

“It could have been a penalty, James is saying it was a penalty. I don’t know what the TV showed.

“It’s just one of those things. In the end, we just get on with it.”

Liam Craig was handed the skipper’s armband for the match, a role which will be a permanent one under Butcher.

He takes over the captaincy from James McPake, whose injury problems had seen goalkeeper Ben Williams deputising in his absence.

Butcher said: “I wanted to see if Liam wanted the job and he said it’s a fantastic honour. I thought he responded well today, he was terrific.

“James has got injury problems. We looked at him this week to play but he has a recurrence of his back injury.

“I felt that Liam is going to be out there more times than not.

“I like my captain in the centre of the action, either at centre-half or a midfield player.

“He’s experienced, he’s well-respected by the fans and the players and he leads by example.

“I spoke to James and Ben Williams as well and they were brilliant about it, absolutely tremendous.

“I thought Liam was great, as were all the boys.

“I call them heroes because I think they were, considering the pressure they have had with losing four on the spin and not scoring.

“We didn’t score today but it was a much better performance.”

The only low point for Hibs was the sight of Paul Heffernan limping out of the action after five minutes with a torn thigh muscle, with Butcher expecting him to be sidelined for a while.

Buddies boss Danny Lennon was pleased with his players for matching the commitment shown by Hibs, who he expected to react positively to having a new manager in the dug-out.

He said: “We knew that Hibs would be fighting and would bring a lot of energy and would be scrapping for a lot of balls.

“I thought the energy that Hibs brought was fantastic, you could tell the reaction of a new manager coming in.

“Boys want to go out and there and impress and you could see they were playing for that jersey.

“But I was absolutely delighted that we more than matched that today.

“I thought we had the better chances of the match but they didn’t go in for us.

“It was a very valuable and hard-fought point for us.”