Stuart Bathgate: The debatable art of making substitutions

There was another case of that at Easter Road on Saturday, when Hibernian manager Pat Fenlon insisted that his withdrawal of strikers Eoin Doyle and Leigh Griffiths had not caused his team’s loss of a two-goal lead against Motherwell. Many spectators thought Hibs had conceded too much ground to their opponents by taking off the two front men, but the manager reckoned the tide had already turned by then, and that switching to a five-man midfield was the right thing to do in an attempt to stem that tide.

However implausible you might think Fenlon’s comments were, the issue is at least debatable. But very occasionally – perhaps no more than once or twice a season – a manager gets things so spectacularly correct that there is no room for debate.

The best example of that so far in this campaign actually came in another 3-2 defeat for Hibs, at Ross County in October. With the game having been locked at 2-2 since half-time, County boss Derek Adams brought Gary Glen off the bench less than quarter of an hour from time. Within ten minutes the former Hearts man laid on what turned out to be the winning goal for another sub, Colin McMenamin. Contradicting conventional wisdom – something he is never afraid to do – Adams then substituted the substitute. Off came Glen, and on in his place came Ross Tokely. With his first touch of the ball, Tokely cleared off the line.

A goal scored at one end; a goal prevented at the other. Both by  substitutes. When the time comes to look back over the season and  decide on the best single managerial  performance, it will take some doing to better that one from Adams.