Calderwood admits he didn’t do enough

COLIN Calderwood has spoken fully for the first time about being sacked by Hibernian and has admitted “I should have done better.”

Calderwood was axed last month after little more than a year in charge at Hibs.

He quickly bounced back into a job as the assistant manager at Birmingham City, but the fact he could not make a success of his time in charge at Easter Road will rankle with him for some time.

However, the former Scotland international central defender has predicted a golden future for Hibs.

He said: “I didn’t achieve the success that I wanted. It was a huge disappointment at the end. But what Hibs do have is a really talented group that will flourish. I have absolutely no doubt about that.

“I am disappointed in myself that I couldn’t give them the results that they deserved, because I certainly believe in the group of players that are at the club.

“It was not really about not having time, because we live in the present and I should have had better results this season without a doubt.

“We shot ourselves in the foot once or twice, but I can see beyond this and I know that group is good and I know what youthfulness and talent there is in the squad.

“There are players there that people will know a lot more of in the future and they are just progressing at the minute.

“We didn’t progress at the rate to get the results required at Hibs, but it is the right foundation for that club, which is run in the perfect way.

“The structure is absolutely spot on and that is the one regret – that I haven’t given the supporters, in the end, the type of success they would expect. If I’m honest, I don’t think that it was going to start this season, but it was growing.”

Calderwood admits he was lucky to have a new job so quickly and is grateful to Chris Hughton for handing him the post at Birmingham.

Calderwood was also Hughton’s assistant at Newcastle United and he added: “I owe Chris a bit of loyalty and it is not as if I am in the starting blocks looking for the next manager’s job.

“This is my time to come and work properly at Birmingham City. It comes back to the level of the club. That was the reason, and the person who is manager has a big influence. They were the reasons why I forfeited waiting to see if there was a another manager’s job out there.

“Chris is not so set in his ways that he will not listen to anyone. He welcomes opinions and he is a very thoughtful coach and man. He is thorough, professional and an excellent man and manager.”

Birmingham are in npower Championship action tonight when they take on Hull City. Hughton’s men go into the game on the back of two defeats – first to Braga in the Europa League last Thursday and most recently to Cardiff in the Championship on Sunday, when Curtis Davies was sent off.

Blues are 14th in the table, six points off the play-offs, but still with three games in hand on the top seven because of a backlog caused by their involvement in Europe.

Asked whether the team were treating the games in hand as points in the bag, goalkeeper Boaz Myhill said: “We’d rather have played the same games as everybody else all the time.

“It can be difficult and if we just think ‘we’ll win them’ it can be dangerous. We’re taking it a game at a time.”