It's just our luck that this has turned out to be Terry Butcher's first game in charge of the Hibees. Had his new club been playing anyone but Inverness Caley Thistle a fortnight ago he'd have been in charge for that game. Had we not just had an international break he'd have made his debut last Saturday. But, as is so often the way, the fates have conspired against us to ensure his first game with his new club is in Paisley tomorrow. Teams nearly always get a wee lift when they have a change of manager and with our record when it comes to helping teams out when they're struggling it wouldn't be a huge surprise if the Butcher era at Hibs starts with a win.
There was a time when the men from Leith couldn't buy a victory in Paisley. Gus MacPherson didn't lose a single match against them at Love Street or Greenhill Road, while Danny Lennon's first Buddies win came against one of his former clubs. However, inexplicably the arrival of Colin Calderwood at Easter Road seemed to bring about a change in fortunes. Since then they've won on four of their last five visits, a record made even more remarkable considering Calderwood and Pat Fenlon were in charge of Hibs. Hopefully the change of manager means the old ways will return and we can get another win tomorrow.
We go into this game on a good run of form. We've won four of our last five games, the heavy defeat to Dundee United the only blip. It's lifted us a wee bit away from the play-off spot and rekindled hopes of a top six push, but it's still a bit too early to be thinking about the latter. We must keep getting points on the board and continue to pull away from the bottom of the table. If we do that it's only a matter of time until we catch the teams above us. We've never won three league games in a row under Lennon so it would be nice to smash that stat tomorrow.
We'll have to do it without Jim Goodwin though as our ghost that referees can't see is suspended - work that one out Derek Adams. There are no direct replacements for him and we'll probably need to re-jig things to make up for his absence. We could move Darren McGregor into midfield and put Lee Mair into defence, or we could pull goal machine Conor Newton back into the holding role and start Gary Harkins or Jake Caprice. There are no obvious options, especially with Gary Teale injured, and it'll be interesting to see what happens. Despite the problems it might not be the worst game for Goodwin to miss as he often seems to have a poor match against Hibs.
That's likely to be the only change as we're playing rather well at the moment. Paul McGowan, John McGinn and Kenny McLean are a joy to watch in midfield, while our young defenders Sean Kelly and Jason Naismith seem to improve with every game – the latter being handed a new contract yesterday. We also have a solid keeper in Marian Kello and a striker who continues to roll back the years in the form of Steven Thompson. All that means our loan signings like Caprice, David Cornell and Stephane Bahoken haven't been able to get a look in lately - and they can have few complaints considering how we're doing. Mind you, there are rumours Bahoken is away back to France so we may well have seen the last of him.
The main surprise about Pat Fenlon's recent departure form Hibs is that he lasted so long. For the past two years Hibs have bumbled along, any decent run of form then interrupted by a shocking result and a winless run - a bit like ourselves really! Like Steve Lomas at St Johnstone, I always got the impression Fenlon really couldn't be bothered with Scottish football and he certainly couldn't be doing with the media. His claims he'd decided to go before their derby defeat to Hearts were laughable, and it seems odd he chose to go rather than be forced out. Whatever, Hibs fans will be hoping for better times now that Terry Butcher is in charge - although they may need to wait until the January transfer window before things really begin to change.
The new man has at least got a couple of decent strikers to choose from and thankfully for us neither of them is Leigh Griffiths. Quite what Kilmarnock were thinking when they agreed to let Paul Heffernan go for free is anybody's guess as, when he was fit, the Irishman did extremely well during his time at Rugby Park. Fenlon was reportedly allowed to pay £200,000 for Swindon's James Collins - although that's a figure Hibs dispute - and the pair of them could well make a decent strikeforce given time. Butcher got the likes of Adam Rooney and Billy McKay scoring for fun in Inverness so he must fancy getting Heffernan and Collins banging in the goals on a regular basis, the pair only having five between them so far this season. Rowan Vine is more of a support player than an out and out scorer, while youngsters Ross Caldwell and Danny Handling provide a bit of competition.
Butcher's playing days as a centre-half should help him get the best out of James McPake. There is a decent defender in the skipper somewhere, it's just a case of bringing it to the surface and stopping him from lunging into the sort of tackles where it's a bonus if he gets the ball. His red card in the League Cup game against Hearts was the perfect example of that and earned him plenty of criticism from his own fans. He should be able to form a good pairing with Michael Nelson, although he is currently out injured meaning youngster Jordon Foster or Paul Hanlon are likely to be alongside McPake tomorrow. Fraser Mullen came in during the close season after being let go by Hearts and has not had the best of times, giving Alan Maybury some games at rightback. Ryan McGivern has been pretty handy on the other side of the defence, but Tom Clancy is still out. The days of comedy goalies are gone now that Ben Williams is here and he's also handy at saving penalties, as we discovered last season.
Hibs fans are no doubt expecting Butcher to come in and kick a few backsides and it's perhaps the midfield department that needs it most, although in fairness Fenlon did make a few bizarre selections. Scott Robertson and Tom Taiwo have both struggled at times and the arrival of a new manager may spark them back into life. Liam Craig is capable of getting goals, while Owan Tudor Jones is back working with Butcher after leaving Caley Thistle in the summer. Kevin Thomson's injury problems look to be behind him and he should play well with Lewis Stevenson, while winger Paul Cairney is almost back although Alex Harris is still missing. That means loanee Abdellah Zoubir is the only fully fit natural winger in the squad but he has only really featured from the bench.
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