I’M HECK STATIC
New boss thrilled with winning start and says there’s lots more to come
Paul Heckingbottom didn’t reinvent the wheel on day one – but he vowed to have Hibs rolling soon enough.
The new Easter Road boss soaked up the pre-match ovation and the post-match congratulations as he got his stint off to a winning start.
Flo Kamberi’s first league goal in two months and a penalty from Marc McNulty pushed Hibs three points outside their target of the top six.
And despite sticking to the same starting XI he inherited, the former Barnsley and Leeds manager insists there’s a lot more to come – and the jigsaw will be built week by week.
He said: “The good thing is I had so long to prepare. The process was a long time so you can get a lot of information yourself and know what you want to do.
“The best thing we did was keep it simple for the players. Focus on two things in possession and two things out of possession that we thought would help us. We could have flooded their minds with information and not seen anything we’d worked on.
“But we can get more out of them than we’ve seen today. That’s got to be the aim.
“My head is spinning now, I’m thinking about things, I’ve already got a hold of the video, but it’s the wrong thing to do it all on day one.
“It’s about building over time. It’s the only way for them to get my ideas.
“So that’ll be the next thing, add more bits for the Dundee game and that will be the approach between now and the end of the season.”
With Eddie May taking his seat in the stand rather than dugout, job done for now, Heckingbottom stuck with the team the caretaker had put out against Raith last weekend. The shape changed, though, to a 4- 4-2 with Daryl Horgan and Stevie Mallan both coming in off the flanks on their opposite side – and it became a fascinating battle against a Brian Rice side who’d been sent out to play.
Their diamond in the middle, with Tony Andreu at the top of it behind a front two, was adventurous by Accies standards away from home and brave in a relegation battle.
But if you’re going to be that adventurous with relegation at stake, you better make damn sure you’re still protecting the back door – and they didn’t do it well enough before the break, particularly against the delivery from wide.
The first one killed them. Horgan’s inswinging cross from the left after some nice build-up play was horrible, wicked, undefendable for a back four and keeper – and manna from heaven for any striker prepared to gamble.
Kamberi did – and took off celebrating even if the touch he got on it might have needed cricket’s
snick-o-meter to find out if it existed. He made far better contact with Horgan’s next cross, Gary Woods coming and floundering as the Swiss striker’s header looped over him, the keeper’s relief clear as it fell down into his arms off the bar.
But the s el f - destruct button was only a few more minutes away.
David Gray’s header back into the mixer was going to be dealt wit h but Lenny Sowah bundling the full-back over as the ball sailed past him was the k ind of head- scratcher that must drive a manager mental . A point less , nothing challenge with a price tag not worth paying as McNulty’s ice- cool spot-kick proved.
In Accies’ defence, they came back out for the second half still looking for redemption and grafted to find a path back in but the execution didn’t match the ambition. They had their moments – Mickel Miller curled a beauty just over from 20 yards, David McMillan forced a decent TV save from Ofir Marciano and George Oa k ley t e s t ed Da r ren McGregor’s abilities of recovery after getting in behind a couple of times.
But Hibs’ points were never really in doubt. Ziggy Gordon had to be at the pea k of his powers to shell a great Gray cross from under the bar, Aaron McGowan did well to clear Kamberi’s shot off the line.
And the game should have been buried if only sub Oli Shaw had lifted his head on a three- on- one break with Kamberi and Mallan both wide open and screaming for it in the box.
The closest Accies came was Miller clattering the post from the tightest of angles after turning Paul Hanlon inside out twice. But sub Stephane Omeonga matched him with a sweet strike in the last five that fizzed past Woods but off his far post.
With Dundee winning at Livingston, Accies fell back into the play- off spot – but it was a day for Hibs to be looking up rather than over their shoulder.
Horgan said: “We needed three points. You always want a good start under a new manager and thankfully we got one.
“We played the way I liked, on the front foot, getting in crosses. The manager set us up solid but still gave us opportunities to create and break.
“And I definitely saw Flo get the toe on the cross so it’s his goal – if he didn’t, I’d have said something!”