Fairytale return for hibs star... but he can’t solve all their problems on his own
HAVING seen their returning talisman deny Hearts with virtually the last kick of the derby, Hibs fans will spend the next week floating on air.
After the shambles that was their team’s exit from the Premier Sports Cup after fielding an ineligible player, who can blame them?
Martin Boyle’s return to the club after a short stint in Saudi Arabia gives the Easter Road club grounds for optimism. It might even prove to be a turning point.
Amid the understandable elation at seeing him snatch a draw yesterday, though, those same fans would be deluding themselves if they were to believe that Boyle will prove to be the answer to everything.
Full credit to him and his team-mates for going until the very end but the plain fact is that it was a scarcely deserved point.
Hearts should have closed the game out after Lawrence Shankland’s goal. They’ll be kicking themselves that they allowed their rivals to keep believing going into stoppage time.
For all the draw felt like a victory in the end for Lee Johnson and his players, and the league table now has them sitting on four points, I wasn’t particularly impressed with what they offered.
They snatched a point rather than earned it. More often than not, that sort of performance would have ended in defeat.
The display reminded me of a poor man’s Tony Pulis or a Sam Allardyce-like set-up.
They clearly set out not to play in stupid areas. They were very direct, tried to get the ball forward as often as and as quickly as possible. They hoped to win free-kicks and play for territory.
I didn’t see any desire to get the ball down and play intricate passes out from he back in the way they did when Scott Allan, John McGinn or Dylan McGeouch were there.
The midfield didn’t know whether to show for the ball short or back their strikers up. They looked so in-between.
I wasn’t sure what style they were trying to play. For me, Hibs are still looking for an identity. They are either not implementing what Johnson wants or they are still waiting for some key personnel to arrive.
Any opposing manager watching that game will be confident of doing a number on them.
Listen, Boyle is a terrific talent. He’s a quick and intelligent winger who will score more than his fair share of goals. Hibs have done extremely well to have sold him for big money and brought him back to the club so quickly.
But he is only one player. For all that was a fairytale return, you can’t expect him to dig you out of a hole every week.
Fundamentally, no team should be relying on a winger to be their main source of goals. It’s not fair on the player.
I know they cost a lot of money but Johnson badly needs to find a regular, natural goalscorer to take the burden off their star man.
I know that Christian Doidge got a few in the League Cup but hasn’t scored in the league for a year. That’s alarming.
Boyle fundamentally isn’t a natural centre-forward. And unless he’s playing and is on song, there are not many in team who give me confidence that they are going to do well this year.
On the evidence of yesterday, they could finish anywhere. That’s a consequence of playing lottery style football. They need to get a style of play that allows them to control matches.
That’s the only way there will be any kind of consistency in terms of results.
It was a very welcome point against Hearts but I’m not convinced it was a deserved one. They got away with one.
Craig Gordon was not overworked. Hearts will be wondering how they didn’t win the game to keep their perfect start intact.
Had they been a little bit more ruthless, they could have been two or three goals up late on.
But when you only have a one-goal advantage going into stoppage time, you simply have to do everything to see it out.
Barrie McKay was outstanding — easily the best player on the park. He can see and execute hard passes, is a good runner and a hard worker defensively. He’s in for a big season.
His pass to Shankland for the goal was tremendous. That’s the striker off the mark at his new club so it’s a huge weight off his shoulders.
It will take a few days for Hearts to shake off the disappointment of not killing the game off but they are still in a good place.
Hibs may have matched them over 90 minutes yesterday but I don’t see them doing it over 38 games.