Hibs’ caretaker boss Eddie May revealed that he had not watched a first team game this season before guiding the players to a magnificent 4-0 away with over on-form St Johnstone in Perth yesterday.
That gave him the benefit of not judging the players on past performances which in all honesty have not been great and basing his selection solely on what he watched during training.
The former midfielder who is best remembered for scoring the only goal in a new year’s derby is not looking for the job on a full-time basis but his standing amongst the supports rose when he announced the team which included two up front, Christian Doidge and Florian Kamberi.
Paul Heckingbottom preferred to play one up front and had a more defensive approach to games but May’s side started on the front foot and never looked back.
Although Doidge scored a hat-trick it was Kamberi (pictured) who was undoubtedly the man of the match with an exceptional performance throughout and he can’t have done his hope of an international call-up any harm.
After the game May said: “The players have set a standard today. Hibs should be at the top end of the table rather than where they are currently.
“It’s three points but it gives us another platform to go and play against Motherwell in the coming weeks to then go and try to get closer to them.
“It should give the players a lift because of the standard of play.
“I’ve not been to one game. The last one I was at was last season when they lost to Aberdeen in the last game. I chose not to go and watch them because I’m in charge of running the academy. If they’ve played exceptionally well today and not in other games then we’ll just ask the question, ‘can they maintain it?’.
“That’s great for me, because I can’t judge the players on what they’ve done in the past.
“All I can do is look at what they’ve done in training since Tuesday, which is why I picked the team I did.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
