Hibernian 0 - 3 Celtic: Dismal Hibs driving fans to despair

• Celtic defender Thomas Rogne lanches an aerial assault on Mark Brown's goal as the home side struggle to contain the visitors, who have rarely enjoyed such an undemanding win at Easter Road. Picture: SNS

The clash at New Douglas Park, which saw Hamilton scratch their way to a point, is impossible to ignore when analysing the merits or otherwise of those teams battling to preserve their Scottish Premier League status.

While Billy Reid's side were well beaten at Ibrox on Saturday, the point picked up at home against Celtic, with just nine men, could prove crucial. Hibs' own 3-0 victory at Ibrox - one of only two victories in Colin Calderwood's 13-game reign - is being made to seem utterly beyond explanation. The defeat to Celtic on Saturday saw Hibs revert to what has been more typical from them this season, as the visitors cantered to their biggest victory at Easter Road for seven years.

Hibs were as poor as they have been during this woeful campaign as Calderwood again shuffled his pack, to little or no effect. This latest defeat came against a backdrop of serious disaffection, perhaps the first obvious signs that Calderwood is struggling to convince the fans that he can effect the drastic turnaround in fortunes required to steer Hibs away from trouble.

He wasn't helped by the circumstances of the loss, with a late first-half goal combined with an early strike in the second half condemning Hibs to what looked like certain defeat by the time the 50-minute mark had been reached. The home fans, at least those who stayed for the duration of the match, had over 40 minutes to sit and stew. One banner, which beseeched chairman Rod Petrie to "splash the cash" or leave, was hoisted aloft in the new east stand, while another, more amateurish effort, called for Calderwood to go.

Compounding the disillusion being felt in the stands was the sight of Anthony Stokes - who earlier this same, wretched season was a Hibs player - ripping his former side apart. The striker supplied the cross for the returning Gary Hooper to open the scoring with a neat finish just two minutes prior to the break. He helped himself to a brace in the second half, although Stokes should probably have collected at least a hat-trick.

His second goal, which saw him hook the ball on the volley over his own shoulder, must have been especially wounding to the Hibs supporters, who had to salute the expertise but despair at the slack defending which saw the Irishman given the space and time to perform such an audacious feat in a packed penalty box. He also speared Hibs with a penalty, after Lewis Stevenson had pole-axed his former-team mate just inside the area.

The home side's skipper Ian Murray was later asked to reflect on the extra agony of being downed by someone so familiar as Stokes, though Murray is as alert as anyone to the lure of the Old Firm. He made the move himself, to Rangers, and, though he is back now, is one of the many stars to have used the Easter Road club as a platform to show-case his qualities. The trouble with Hibs now is that too few are using the opportunity to shine, though one suspects most simply don't possess the ability to make themselves attractive to bigger clubs, or else are simply too raw and inexperienced to do so at this difficult time.

"Stokesy did his time here and did well and then moved on to another club," said Murray. "The club cashed in on him. It's up to Hibs if they want to do that - it's entirely up to the board to run the club as they see fit and so far they've done a very good job. We can't sit here and criticise people for selling players and for managers changing. It's down to us and we have not done ourselves justice.

"We have to look within ourselves as a group of players and stick together," he added. "The manager has drummed it into us as well. He has told us that the criticism will be flying and people will be sharpening their knives for us, but he installs that little bit of grit and determination in us. Probably at the moment it is not too evident but I can assure you that he's putting us in the right mental frame of mind - as is (assistant manager] Derek Adams and (coach] Gareth Evans. We are in this together. And we need to stick together."

The need to stick together has been out-stripped by the need to shake-up the personnel, with Calderwood's latest ploy - Hibs originally lined up in a 4-1-4-1 formation - proving ineffective against a Celtic side who were inspired by a dominant performance from midfielder Beram Kayal. It's heartbreaking to observe, but Edwin de Graaf, the marquee signing of last summer, has been reduced to a shadow of whoever it was John Hughes, Calderwood's predecessor, had expected to welcome to Easter Road.

Calderwood sounded slightly dispirited afterwards as he revealed how signing talks with various targets had broken down last week. "That is a catalogue of woe," he said. One or two deals might, he predicted, be "re-ignited", but even if someone was signed at the beginning of this week, Hibs won't be permitted to field him tomorrow night at Somerset Park, where the Easter Road team face an absolutely critical Scottish Cup replay with Ayr United.

The venue represents a test at any time, but Hibs' hosts are high on confidence having taken over leadership of the Second Division on Saturday. "We've just finished this game but we are looking forward to going down there, it's maybe the game we needed," Murray said on Saturday, not entirely convincingly. "We are away from home in the cup against a Second Division team who maybe fancy their chances a little bit, and on the evidence of today, rightly so. We have couple of days to get to work, get down there and get ourselves ready."