THIS IS PRETTY AWFUL
PAUL HECKINGBOTTOM admits he wants his Hibees to start winning ugly after conceding pretty football is getting them nowhere.
The Englishman is already feeling the heat from fans after failing to win any of their last three Premiership games.
Sections of the travelling support even called for him to go as they watched their team crash to a pitiful 3-0 thrashing at Motherwell last time out.
But former Leeds and Barnsley boss Heckingbottom insists it’s up to players to start scrapping for every ball.
Ahead of their clash with Kilmarnock tomorrow he said: “I said after the Motherwell game we looked like a pretty team who got beat.
“We want to be able to win games and perform consistently.
“Towards the back end of last season we won a couple of games ugly. You could still say we deserved to win them but we still had to dig in – but we’ve not won one like that yet. We’ve won BY ALAN MARSHALL one, against St Mirren, when we’ve been by far the best team and lost one against Motherwell where we passed the ball well but still got hammered.
“You can’t blame the guys in defence as it all starts from the front. We need more from the front players, the pressure they put on the ball to try and win it back, more cover in midfield.
“I tell players regularly that if you make three mistakes in a row you’re going to concede.
“We need to get back to, ‘I’ve made a mistake but my mate behind covers for me’.
“‘I make a mistake, my mate behind can’t cover it but the goalkeeper saves it’. That’s what we need and we’ve not done that as often enough.
“Not everyone is comfortable doing that. If you’re not you’re going to limit you’re game time.
“We’ll keep working on the training pitch but the teams we pick and the players being dropped will reflect that as well.”
Heckingbottom also concedes that part of the reason for their underwhelming start could be down to the fact seven of his 10 summer arrivals had no previous experience of the Scottish game.
Heckingbottom, who brought in former St Mirren right-back Jason Naismith on loan from Peterborough on deadline day, added: “I expect them to be winning from game one because it’s a game of football.
“But we have to make sure we have things in place to help them settle and help them do that.
“The Scottish game is different, the game is different and there are that many variations of how people play for such a small league with 12 teams.
“It’s refereed differently, it’s different. You’re just crossing the border so it’s not like playing abroad but it’s a totally different type of football, just like if you were going across to the continent.
“There are those adaptations but it’s still the same game.”
But Heckingbottom is confident Naismith will have no problems readjusting to the Premiership.
He said: “We hope Jason makes a difference but it’s a big ask for him to come in and solve problems. He has a reputation up here for being fully committed, 100 per cent, will defend and put his body on the line. “We were struggling in that position with David Gray and Tom James being out and it was a case of let’s act.”
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