Hibs’ full-back Paul McGinn is expecting a tough 90-minutes in Perth this afternoon after playing against St Johnstone in a pre-season bounce match.
The Saints changed managers in the summer break with Northern Irishman Tommy Wright surprising leaving and Callum Davidson taking over.
Wright was arguably St Johnstone’s most successful manager and he had the reputation of organising the players and making them hard to beat whilst Davidson has the reputation of being a good young coach.
Speaking ahead of the game McGinn said: “I came on in the last half hour in the pre-season game and they were really good that day so we know it will be tough.
“For years they were the same, it was always the four at the back and you knew what you were getting whereas this is a bit different. They’ve still got a few faces like Craig and Murray Davidson who will be in there with the same fight and desire. It’s a different shape, a three at the back. It’s very different and we’ll be watching videos.
“They’re always so hard to beat and in the last season or two they had a young defence but they’ve been working a lot and Callum Davidson is meant to be a really good coach so he’s got that back three really tight now.
“I watched their match with Aberdeen and thought they were the better team. They were perhaps lacking in creativity but they will be working on that.”
Hibs go into the game three-points behind leaders Rangers but with a game in hand and a comprehensive victory would see them return to the top of the table but McGinn isn’t getting carried away.
After the club’s three-game winning start to the season, the fans were brought back down to earth last weekend with a 0-0 draw against Motherwell in a match which could have gone either way.
The pleasing aspect for the teams was their second successive clean sheet and McGinn was considered ‘man of the match’ by many observers.
He added; “You get into the habit of winning and you really want it, you don’t want to get carried away but the expectations are there from ourselves.
“It was probably good that the gaffer came in after the Motherwell game and said: ‘look after the start you’ve had, don’t get bogged down that we weren’t great, we all know not it’.
“We could still have won the game though. Boyle had a great chance and there were a few others, but the gaffer just said: ‘You’ve had a great start, these things are going to happen – Motherwell are no mugs.”
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.
