Hibs boss won’t blame stand-ins for dropped standards in Cup shock
‘We’re all in this together,’ insists Gray
Hibs boss David Gray insists he won’t be blaming the half dozen stand-ins for his team’s below-par performance in a shock Premier Sports Cup loss to Kelty Hearts. But he’s stressed the need for levels to be maintained regardless of how many changes he makes to the starting XI.
Gray’s men missed a hatful of chances and conceded a sloppy goal to a short corner routine on their day trip across the Forth, the new manager bemoaning failings at both ends of the park. And he said the fact that he’d made six changes to his starting line-up, a necessary measure for the team’s third game in a week, shouldn’t be used as an excuse for falling short.
“We’re all in this together,” said Gray, the rookie boss adding: “I’m not blaming anyone individually. Collectively, we weren’t at the level we’ve been for the last two competitive games. Definitely not.
“And that needs to be the challenge, that if we do make changes, the players who come in and the team playing still needs to step up to the level. We dropped a level against Kelty.
“Whether that’s a lack of quality, a lack of composure in the final third, we did have enough chances to go and win the game. We didn’t do that, didn’t get the early goal to go and impose ourselves.
“The longer you stay at nil-nil while missing chance after chance, the more opportunity you give to the opposition to punish you.”
Reporting that No. 1 goalkeeper Josef Bursik was rested after suffering a reaction to diving on his hip, Gray said he always wanted to give the goalie a break after back-to-back 90-minute performances, adding: “Even today, with the changes I’ve made, we’re thinking about the third game in a week, using the squad. It’s an opportunity for others to get minutes and make sure the level doesn’t drop; unfortunately we didn’t do that today.”
Asked if it was important to prove that yesterday’s loss was merely a bump in the road on his team’s upward trajectory to date, Gray declared: “Yeah, it needs to be that. It’s not as if we came to Kelty not to win. But you have to understand that it takes to win at places like this.
“There is always a challenge you face when you go to Kelty. And there will be another tough challenge at the weekend when we face Peterhead at home this weekend – so we need to be ready for it.
“We need to dust ourselves down as quickly as we can, reflect on what we can do better – and make sure we do it. That starts straight away on Monday morning.”
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