Boss David Gray accepts fans’ discontent amid miserable Hibs run

Under-pressure manager David Gray fully understands the anger of supporters as he lamented Hibernian’s “lack of fight” in the 2-1 home defeat by St Mirren.

Hibs go into the international break bottom of the William Hill Premiership with just one win from their 12 matches and none in their last seven after Conor McMenamin’s first-half double for the visitors proved decisive.

After Martin Boyle saw a penalty saved by Saints goalkeeper Ellery Balcombe just after the hour, the Edinburgh side staged a late rally in which substitute Nicky Cadden scored a stoppage-time spot-kick and then the same player thought he had equalised moments later but the ball struck his offside team-mate Dwight Gayle on the way in.

Hibs fans made their discontent known towards players, management and board members, cranking up the heat on former club captain Gray, who was appointed boss in the summer.

“I don’t think worried or scared is the right way I feel about it,” he said about his own future. “I fully understand the noise and rightly so because of the situation we’re in, where this club is at the moment.

“We’ve talked a lot about it being a new squad and I could come up with 101 excuses but where we find ourselves isn’t good enough.

“One thing I do know is until someone tells me differently I’m going to try as hard as I can. I will continue to work as hard as I possibly can because no one’s more frustrated than me. I also know what’s in the group and what we can be.”

Gray admitted he was angered by his team’s approach in the first half and responded by making a triple change for the start of the second half.

“The first-half performance was completely unacceptable,” he said. “We were miles off it. Not just one player, a lot of players shying away from the ball, making mistakes, not taking the ball, and then individual errors again.

“The lack of fight, and belief, probably, in the first half was missing for me. St Mirren definitely played as if they were a team that wanted to win the game, whereas we’re the team that need the points, need to win the game.”

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson felt his side were worthy winners despite the stoppage-time drama when Hibs looked like they had equalised.

“Believe it or not, we were quite convinced it was offside because we’d seen the footage and we were like ‘please don’t get this one wrong’,” he said.

“I think it would have been a travesty if we hadn’t won the game. We got a slice of luck with the decision going our way but I thought we thoroughly deserved to win.

“First half, I thought we were outstanding. We hit the crossbar at what should have been 3-0 and then it’s a nervy finish because we don’t finish the game off.

“But, to a man, I was delighted with the level of performance and energy.”