PAT FENLON'S first game in charge of Hibernian was abandoned at half-time after a floodlight caught fire.
Hibs were winning at the time. Three months later they would lose the rearranged fixture. It was symptomatic of the bad luck Fenlon would go on to endure in almost two years in charge at Easter Road.
The Irishman was perhaps a surprise choice to succeed Colin Calderwood in November 2011 but five League of Ireland titles won with two different clubs over six years highlighted his managerial pedigree. Only a failure to agree compensation had prevented Dundee United from appointing him the previous year. Rod Petrie, the Hibs chairman, had tried but failed with previous left-field managerial appointments but there was a confidence this one would be different. "Put simply, Pat Fenlon is a winner," Petrie claimed at the Irishman's unveiling. Sadly for Hibs, that winning streak would quickly dry up.
Fenlon has resigned after two years of honest toil but with two of the worst results in Hibs' history now adorning his cv. The 5-1 defeat by Hearts in the 2012 Scottish Cup final is a day he will never be allowed to forget. Wherever he goes and whatever he does in the remainder of his career, there will always be a Hearts fan somewhere in the background, gleefully holding up five digits on one hand and one on the other, mugging for the camera.
There were plenty of Hibs supporters who thought he should go there and then but Fenlon somehow survived, rebuilt for the new season and took the club to another Scottish Cup final. A 3-0 defeat by Celtic was sore to take but there was almost a sense of relief among the Hibs camp that it had not been as bad as the previous year.
Then came Malmo. A 2-0 loss in the first leg of their Europa League qualifying tie had left Hibs cautiously optimistic about overturning the deficit in the return. Instead what unfolded was utter carnage, the Swedes running in seven unanswered goals to foist upon Hibs the unwanted record of the worst aggregate score ever endured by a Scottish club in European competition. Rangers' 12-4 hammering by Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960 was finally off the hook. But still Fenlon clung on.
A Scottish League Cup loss against a Hearts side ravaged by administration and with a group of players who have only just started shaving, however, would prove the final straw. Fenlon has gone, falling on his sword just three weeks short of his two-year anniversary.
In that period there has been repeated talk that incremental progress was being made. Only this week captain James McPake spoke about all the changes Fenlon had implemented behind the scenes, bringing in his own medical team and such like, as a sign that things were moving in the right direction. Results, though, continued to defy such claims. Hibs narrowly avoided relegation in Fenlon's first season, failed to make the top six in his second and sit in seventh at the time of his departure from Easter Road. With Rangers out of the top flight and Hearts vastly depleted, the opportunity was there to stake a claim to be the second force in Scottish football and Fenlon failed to grab it.
He could not be accused of inertia. He brought in a raft of loan players in the January window during his first season to ensure the team stayed up, then overhauled the squad again the following summer. The most recent transfer window was just as busy, signing nine new players including paying a reported £200,000 to recruit James Collins from Swindon Town. Supporters grumbled, however, that the team was too pedestrian, with too many defensive-minded midfielders employed to do similar roles and little in the way of flair. Leigh Griffiths was a phenomenon during two years on loan - especially in his second season when he scored 28 goals - and without him Hibs have not looked quite as potent a force.
There were few outside-the-box signings, a sign perhaps that the club's scouting system is not what it ought to be. Fenlon also worked with three assistants at Hibs, with Billy Brown, Liam O'Brien and latterly Jimmy Nicholl all taking turns at trying to offer guidance.
His departure, however, should not be viewed in isolation. Fenlon becomes the fifth Hibs manager in succession to depart with less than two years' service under his belt, a frankly appalling record that suggests there are wider factors at play not conducive to long-term stability. Attention will again turn to Petrie, and behind him the largely silent majority shareholder, Tom Farmer, to see what they do next.
A new manager will soon be ushered in with yet another promise that a bright new dawn will soon break over Easter Road. Hibs supporters can be forgiven for remaining sceptical. They have seen this movie many times before.
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