JIMMY NICHOLL, Hibernian's outgoing caretaker manager, had told his players to treat Saturday's match against Inverness Caledonian Thistle like an X Factor-style audition.
There will, therefore, not be too many of them making it through to the next stage. The Hibs players were apparently unaware Terry Butcher was in the main stand at Easter Road ahead of his expected appointment as their manager this morning but, regardless, there was little in their capitulation to suggest a team going all out to impress. This particular judge's comments on the first day of training are probably going to be more brutal than anything Simon Cowell ever delivered at his most cutting.
A fourth successive defeat, again without scoring a goal, laid bare the extent of Hibs' difficulties. Inverness cut them open repeatedly, especially in the first half when they scored through Nick Ross's penalty and a fine finish from Billy McKay, and threatened to run in several more. At the other end a half-hearted penalty claim and a Kevin Thomson free kick that bounced over were the closest Hibs came to breaching the Inverness back line, who ably demonstrated that there may well be life at the club after Butcher.
This ought to be a good time to become Hibs manager. The club is financially sound, enjoys excellent facilities and can command a sizeable fanbase when things are going well. With Rangers out of the league and Hearts weakened, the path would seem to be clear for the right manager to take Hibs back towards the top end of the table. Butcher, assuming compensation can be agreed between the clubs, may well be the man to achieve that, although his immediate task will be to invigorate a side clearly struggling for confidence. "Everything is in place here - that's probably what's attracting him to the club," said Scott Robertson, the Hibs midfielder. "It's a huge job. There's a lot of pressure comes with it, obviously, but it's a job that if he does well then I'm sure he'll be in a similar situation in a few years' time, with bigger clubs looking at him."
Robertson spoke so openly about Butcher it was as if the Hibs players are already mentally adjusting to the idea of the Englishman becoming their manager. Owain Tudur Jones, the former Inverness player, would have been an obvious sounding board but Butcher's successes over the past four years mean little explanation of his capabilities was really needed. "Owain said he's very hard-working and he will get the best out of people, so hopefully that's what we can achieve here," added Robertson. "The one thing I'd say about them [Inverness] is they're a very hard team to beat. And at the moment it doesn't seem like we are like that. We've not done well at home at all. I think that will probably be the first thing he's looking to improve, because we are too easy to beat.
"We feel we've got very good players. Not the perfect mix - we maybe need a bit more pace in the squad in certain areas - but if we can be hard to beat we can pick up results."
The search will now begin for the next Inverness manager, with Maurice Malpas - Butcher's assistant, who took the team on Saturday - suggesting he may be willing to hang around to succeed the Englishman. Figures such as Barry Ferguson and Craig Levein have also been touted as possible candidates. Like the Hibs vacancy, whoever gets the job will be moving to a club with plenty going for it. Inverness' win lifted them to second in the SPFL Premiership table and they have a League Cup semi-final to look forward to. If they can prevent Butcher from doing his January shopping at the club, then Inverness would seem to be put in good shape heading into the second half of the campaign. "I'm very confident," said McKay. "We've got all the players in place to do well this season. Look at how well we played against Hibs, with everything going on. So any manager who comes in will have a great set of lads who can win a lot of games."
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