Stewart's inquiry into early Hibs days

THE decorators were in at Easter Road last week. Dust sheets required to be stepped over, ladders walked round and boiler-suited blokes with brushes avoided when padding around inside Hibernian's main stand. And as marks and stains were pasted and painted out of view with honest endeavour, in a nearby lounge Michael Stewart unburdened himself about the need for his toil to cover over past career blemishes.

Although he is now 25 years old, the midfielder is looking at this season as only his second at the desired level... and first without unwelcome distractions. When he arrived at the Leith club last summer following an unproductive stint with boyhood team Hearts, Stewart was the dyke-jumper of questionable fitness. Prior to that he had been a problem player at Nottingham Forest. Before then, he was the exciting prospect of Manchester United manufacture notable for earning a full Scotland cap before the first of his few first-team starts.

So maligned for past blots does Stewart continue to feel, he even believes some choose to recall his contribution to Hibs last season not in terms of the player doubling his senior appearances inside seven months, but for the fact that a recurring foot injury cost him the last six weeks of it. Yet to Stewart, across the past year he successfully laid the groundwork for progression over the next 12 months.

"I thought fairly early on last season that I wouldn't be too hard on myself because it was about getting games under my belt to look forward to this season," he said. "It was slightly artificial for that to be my first proper season at the age I was. But I did have expectations and was fairly happy, though slightly disappointed at how the season tailed off for both me and the team. It just means there is all the more riding on this season." Stewart's desire to earn respect for his efforts goes beyond the standard point-proving.

"Everyone who plays has points to prove," he said. "These might be to do with expectations or wanting to improve. If you don't play to prove yourself, something is wrong.

"The mass media can influence the public and the perception they have picked up is that I am injury prone, and have not lived up to the heights expected of me after a couple of seasons did not go the way they should have gone," he said.

"That will be the view for many seasons to come. Until I change the perception, in fact, and instead of looking at what I have failed to do, people look at what I am doing and how well I am doing it. I am not someone who lives in a bubble and I am willing to take on that challenge.

"I have high expectations and am happy to work hard to achieve them. How long it will take to change minds about me depends on how I perform and how well the media take to that. Everyone has critics and points to prove. There are always people in the media and in the game who will doubt you and I am no different. My situation has been well documented."

And it continues to be so in a manner he considers less than fair. "What made me slightly upset towards the end of last season was the reaction to an annoying injury I had that wouldn't clear up. That became 'Oh well, he missed so many games again, blah, blah blah'. People seem to forget that I played over 30 games last year, which I hadn't done in any season before.

"You can analyse things from so many different angles and people's perceptions can be tainted by that. I get annoyed when these things keep getting dragged up. Rather than look at these positives, it was highlighted that I missed ten games at the end of the season. That is why this season is a big one for me personally, as well as the team. There is a lot to come from the people at the club."

Since last summer, Tony Mowbray's squad has been shorn of Garry O'Connor, Derek Riordan, Gary Caldwell and Gary Smith, while in this close season augmented only by defender Rob Jones. That has engendered a belief there can only be less to come from people at the club than they produced in the previous two campaigns under the current manager. The third place achieved in 2004-5 is entirely out of reach because of Hearts' financial muscle, but even seeing off the challenge of Aberdeen and Kilmarnock for fourth spot could prove dastardly difficult.

"We have lost some big players so it is natural to assume that the team and the squad will be weaker," the midfielder stated. "We have to hope the lads who will come in can fill the gaps, but maybe it will be a case of taking a step back to assess the situation a month or two into the season and see how we are going. But at the same time, that doesn't mean we are going to settle for anything less. The people that are here are hungry and driven people and want to make sure they do things to the best of their ability. There is still a lot here and by putting in the hard work we want to maintain a high finish. We have good footballers with good footballing brains. We have to collectively fill the void created by the loss of Derek Riordan's 20 goals and that might mean sharing the scoring between three or four lads. Looking in from the outside, we might seem a bit short. But we will have to rectify that."

InterToto Cup involvement has allowed Hibs to plunge themselves "straight back into the season proper", according to Stewart. He believes the European ties will have handily sharpened the Leith team's competitive edge ahead of entertaining Aberdeen on Saturday as the wraps come off the latest Scottish Premierleague campaign.

In order that he can hone his talents to their maximum, Stewart no doubt will hope another challenge lies beyond the completion of a second one-year contract at Easter Road. His schooling at Old Trafford led him to believe he was meant for bigger things than starting out a season looking to land one of the best also-ran positions in his country's modest top flight. In craving career development, the midfielder maintains he is no different from Mowbray and his assistant Mark Venus.

"In the past four years I have been at four different clubs so I signed on again with Hibs because I thought stability was what I needed and in everyone's best interests," he said. "But I want to get as high up the footballing ladder as possible; that is how I felt yesterday and will be how I feel tomorrow. It is just about seeing where your ability can take you if you work hard. I like it here because I share the same philosophy on the game as the manager and Vino, who are knowledgeable and people to learn a lot from. But they are also ambitious and aspire to do good things in the game."

It remains in the balance as to whether Stewart will be known for more than not so good things.

Taken from the Scotsman