Paul Heckingbottom last night insisted that he is the man to turn things round at Hibs despite seeing his side slump to second bottom in the league after a 2-1 home defeat to Hearts.
Hibs took the lead when Stevie Mallan’s spectacular shot from 30 yards flew into the top corner of the net and should have added a second from new signing Melker Hallberg before Uche Ikpeazu equalised and teenager Aaron Hickey scored the winner with a deflected shot near the end.
After the final whistle a few dozen Hibs’ fans congregated in front of the West Stand demanding that Heckingbottom be sacked and it took the Yorkshireman an hour before he attended the press conference.
He said: “They are not games you want to lose whether you are on a good run or a bad run. Would I feel differently if we had won the two games before? I don’t think I would. It is tough to take.
“You want the win and you want to turn things around and you want to put right the things that are going wrong but I wouldn’t call it any differently.
“This is a sickener and I understand the frustrations because the manner of the defeat is a tough one as well.”
When questioned about his future at the club he responded: “I have no problems answering those questions. You will ask me them and I will answer but you are asking the wrong person.
“The minute I start worrying about that or making decisions based on that I am not doing my job. My job along with the staff and the players is to put it right on the pitch.
“Other things are not our remit or our decision. We have to focus on our job, stand up, be strong, act like men and put it right, there is no hiding place.”
“Have I got confidence that I can turn it around? Yes, no problem. I’ve got confidence.
“But there’s no hiding place from what’s going on. Similar to the game we played against Hearts here last year [in April], we should have been out of sight and got punished near the end. We need to be more clinical.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
