Stuart Bathgate: O'Connor quickly proving naysayers wrong

WHENEVER a player returns to one of his former clubs, the old chorus starts up: Never go back. It won't be the same as last time. It'll all end in tears.

Garry O'Connor's return to Hibernian this summer was the latest such move to be greeted with that sceptical refrain. And, after the striker's last-minute winner at Inverness, it also looks like becoming the latest to show how foolish the clich is.

O'Connor may have struggled to find fitness and form over the past two or three years, but he has done all right for himself since leaving Easter Road in 2006, both financially and in footballing terms. At 28 he still has a lot to offer, and is easily capable of holding his own in the SPL provided he looks after himself. And as well as goals, he offers some valuable experience and self-belief to a Hibs squad which has been badly deficient in both.

On Saturday, with time running out at a venue where they had never won, Hibs must have been tempted to hold on for a point. At a similar stage in many games last season, they became nervous, lost their shape, and were more likely to concede a late goal than score one. But O'Connor has rarely been prey to such flaws as self-doubt, and has a knack of scoring last-gasp winners. Supporters on both sides of the capital will recall his 92nd-minute strike which was the only goal of the game in the August 2003 Edinburgh derby, while four years later he got the extra-time winner - again, the only goal in the match - for Lokomotiv Moscow in the Russian Cup final.

Defences may have superior powers of concentration for 89 minutes or longer, but that is not always enough. So it proved at Inverness, where his late strike ended Hibs' appalling record at the ground. By his own admission, Colin Calderwood has some way to go to turn Hibs into a side capable of competing towards the top of the SPL. The recruitment of O'Connor, however, represents a considerable step in the right direction.