Hibs' green shoots of recovery sprout just in time for derby

COLIN LESLIE and DARREN JOHNSTONE
NINE days ago, Hibs were in the depths of despair – facing their biggest game of the season without a manager, without a win in six matches and with a disjointed squad seemingly in turmoil.
Enter Mixu Paatelainen, and one impressive Scottish Cup victory, a Dean Shiels hat-trick, a fit top goalscorer, and two new faces later, the Easter Road club now head into this lunchtime's capital derby on something of a high.

To demonstrate just how much Hibs' outlook has brightened in the space of a week, Paatelainen's side should run out at Tynecastle to be greeted by the sight of a full Roseburn Stand. The visiting supporters had sold only a small portion of their 3,000 allocation prior to the Finn's arrival, but yesterday were on course to snap up all remaining tickets for a match they suddenly view as winnable.

Despite Hearts' equally dreadful run of form, the notion of a Hibs victory would have seemed absurd to anyone who witnessed the abject display they produced away to St Mirren a fortnight ago – a performance Famous Five legend Lawrie Reilly lamented as the worst he had ever seen from a side he has been associated with for more than half a century.

Defeat against Hearts is entirely possible today, with Stephen Frail's side having hinted at a return to form in their rousing 2-2 Scottish Cup draw with Motherwell last Saturday, but whatever happens in the latest instalment of a habitually enthralling derby, Hibs have at least clawed back a portion of the feel-good factor which swept them to the top of the SPL at the start of the season.

The arrival of Paatelainen certainly galvanised Hibs into producing their best game in months in the cup win over Inverness, and the new manager was able to claim a hefty slice of the credit, having given Shiels a place in his starting XI, a chance the Northern Irishman grabbed with both hands by scoring all three goals.

Guided by his new No 2 Donald Park, another welcome sight back at Easter Road, Paatelainen also took the bold step of pitching 17-year-old Paul Hanlon in for his first-team debut. When the young left-back took a knock, the manager did not hesitate in replacing him with another teenager, Darren McCormack – early signs that the Finn will do things his way, not necessarily the way of his predecessors.

When Paatelainen shook hands on a four-year-deal with the Hibs chairman Rod Petrie, he accepted that money would be tight – a motto which should perhaps adorn the entrance to Easter Road – and that the most consistent member of the squad, the left-back, David Murphy would be departing during the January transfer window.

Murphy left for Birmingham City for £1.5 million this week, with the best wishes of the club and supporters more used to seeing their top players snaffled by the Old Firm, but Paatelainen has shrewdly cushioned the blow by recruiting midfielder John Rankin from Inverness for £110,000 and former Easter Road captain Ian Murray on a free from Norwich City, with Colin Nish of Kilmarnock also still in Hibs' sights.

Rankin only passed his medical and put pen to paper on Thursday evening, but already his appetite for success has been stoked by the positivity surrounding Hibs under Paatelainen.

"I met the manager last week and he is very enthusiastic about what he wants to do with the club," said Rankin. "It sounds great and I'm happy to be a part of it.

"It's a big club to play for and we should be looking at the scenario of playing in Europe each year. We are only on 28 points at the moment but hopefully we can start picking up the points again."

While Rankin will be welcomed as a new face, Murray – a former team-mate of Paatelainen during the Finnish striker's two playing spells at the club – faces a battle to win back the hearts and minds of a Hibs support who gave the six-times capped Scotland defender a rough ride when he chose an ill-fated move to Rangers.

As a youngster, Murray supported the club, was an Easter Road ballboy and watched from the terracing, so he knows what he must do to achieve redemption – get his head down and play well.

A dream debut against Hearts would, of course, be a good starting point, although the 26-year-old – who is comfortable at left-back and can also provide cover in central defence – lacks match fitness and may have to settle for a place on the bench.

Indeed, Murray hasn't played much football in the last 18 months after being diagnosed as having reactive arthritis, a condition which kept him out for six months and left him so drained he was unable to "lift a bag off the floor".

Despite only playing 43 games during his two seasons at Ibrox, and 11 at Norwich City this term, the former Easter Road skipper believes he has benefited from his spell away, and insisted: "I feel I've come back stronger mentally as well as physically, both on and off the park. I think I have improved as a footballer since I was last here."

Murray, who played the 2003 New Year derby at Tynecastle with a green '1973' dyed into his hair in a provocative tribute to Hibs' 7-0 win at the same ground 30 years earlier, insists he has matured and has vowed to grasp the chance to impress if given the chance.

He added: "It's not an easy game to start back in, against Hearts at Tynecastle. But it is a good game and if I'd been able to pick one this would probably be it. They have been going through a hard time, as have Hibernian, but we have a feel-good factor about this place again with a new manager, a couple of new players and the win in the cup last week.

"It's nice to be back at Hibernian. It's a very short career and you never quite know where it is going to take you. When I left here it was a case that I felt there was an opportunity and it felt like it was the right time for me to take that. But it is nice to be back again.

"If anyone had said to me a year ago that I would be sitting here then I'd not have believed it, in particular that I'd be doing so with Mixu Paatelainen as the manager."

If Murray is not deemed fit enough to start, he may be joined on the bench by top scorer Steven Fletcher, who broke his ankle against Celtic in September, but proved his well-being by coming through a closed-doors game with Dundee this week. Fletcher was one of the driving forces behind Hibs' impressive early form, and his absence has coincided with a crisis in confidence in front
of goal, which has affected fellow forward Clayton Donaldson – suspended today, along with Thierry Gathuessi – and Mikael Antoine-Curier.

A derby played on a winter pitch with tackles sure to be flying in may not be the ideal environment for Fletcher to return, however, and Paatelainen acknowledged: "He took part in the closed doors game on Wednesday and he did well, and had no reaction from that, so it's looking positive, but whether this game comes too soon remains to be seen. One thing we have to remember is not to throw him in too early."

Scoring goals was a habit that had deserted Hibs up until Shiels' treble last Saturday, and the fact Fletcher will be back sooner rather than later only adds to the growing confidence within Easter Road that the club can climb from the unsatisfactory eighth spot they now occupy in the SPL and still turn this topsy-turvy season around.

Taken from the Scotsman