NEIL LENNON is a man of eclectic musical taste but when he blurted out the word “boyband” to describe the Hibernian players he had just inherited as the club’s new manager it wasn’t meant as a compliment. Lennon’s view, and one that many shared, was that there was an abundance of style over substance among the group, that the team possessed talent but little tenacity. Toughening them up to ensure they escaped from the Championship at the third attempt would be one of his early objectives.
The feedback is that progress on that front has already been made. The first step to resolving any problem is to acknowledge there is a problem and Martin Boyle conceded that perhaps Hibs had been too soft last year, a weakness that culminated in them failing to make it through the play-offs after being knocked out by Falkirk. Under Lennon, any similar failure will not be due to flaws in their character.
“The manager still keeps telling us that we are not going to be the same old soft Hibs,” said Boyle after helping launch Hibs’ Perseverance Scottish Cup tour. “He's changed that. We have been defensively solid since he has come in and we go out fighting for each other. We are scoring a lot more goals this season too.
“What did I think when I read him calling us soft? Maybe we were in certain aspects. Maybe the way we dealt with it [the pressure] when we met Falkirk we were a bit soft. But it makes you strive to go out onto the pitch and prove him wrong. He's not actually said the boyband thing to us but he said that to the press. But he has definitely toughened us up and that's the kind of character he is. We’re more heavy metal than boyband now, we’ve moved up!
“Can he be a frightening character at times? He can have his moments. Everyone knows what he is like. He's come in here and stamped his authority straight away and he's getting the best out of the boys. He talks about the players he has played against, and says he wasn't nervous when he went to play. He says to test ourselves and we can go high in the game. He's a great manager.
“He doesn't want us to take our foot off the gas. He wants us to punish teams and score as many goals as we can. He's wanting us to be more ruthless in front of goal and it's paying off.”
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