PAUL Heckingbottom tonight insisted he can turn Hibernian’s season around as angry supporters gathered outside Easter Road and called for him to be sacked.

Heckingbottom’s team surrendered a one goal lead in the second-half of the Edinburgh derby against Hearts to lose 2-1.

It is the third Ladbrokes Premiership match in a row the Leith club have been beaten in and they are now in second bottom spot in the top flight table.

Heckingbottom, whose team have only won one of their opening six league games, admitted he was feeling under pressure.

However, the former Barnsely and Leeds United boss is confident he can end their run of poor form and admitted he may drop some of the players who were responsible for their late collapse against their capital rivals.

“I am feeling it,” he said. “They are not games you want to lose whether you are on a good run or a bad run. Would I feel differently if we had won the two games before? I don’t think I would. It is tough to take.

“You want the win and you want to turn things around and you want to put right the things that are going wrong, but I wouldn’t call it any differently. This is a sickener and it is a sickener in its own right. I understand the frustrations because the manner of the defeat is a tough one as well.

“My job along with the staff and the players is to put it right on the pitch. Other things aren’t our remit or our decision. We have to focus on our job, stand up, be strong, act like men and put it right. No hiding place.

“Have I got confidence that I can turn it around? Yeah, no problem. I’ve got confidence. But there’s no hiding place from what’s going on. Similar to the game we played against Hearts here last year, we should have been out of sight and got punished near the end.

“We need to be more clinical, more ruthless. I’m looking at the attacking players on the pitch. How many shots did they have on goal, the attacking players? How often did they really work their keeper?

“Again, that’s not a tactical issue in terms of getting up the pitch, getting into positions. Belief, quality, a real desire to score a goal. That’s what you need. At 2-1 we changed shape and were going for it. I would have loved something to have fallen for us then, of course. But that was going a bit more gung-ho. There’s got to be a conviction in both boxes."

Asked if he still thought he would be able to halt their run of disappointing form, Heckingbottom said: “Yeah, a hundred per cent. I would love to see your face if I sat here and said otherwise. A hundred per cent.

“Again, you will ask me those things. I can’t think like that. To do your job as a manager, you can’t think like that. It’s pointless. What’s the point in doing that? I’ve already been looking back at the video of the game and, straight away, I’m thinking about what I show the players tomorrow.

“You’ve got to look at that (changing the team), without a doubt. The frustrating thing, for me, is that I’d love to be sitting here talking about Stevie Mallan’s goal and some big performances.

“I know, when I watch the game back, that for 75 minutes I know what I’m going to see. I’m going to be really pleased with lots of bits of the game. Then, when I get to that bit, it’s the same frustrations.

So we have to change. You might say the players let us down.

“But it’s our responsibility. It’s my responsibility. I have to do that. That’s why you can understand the fans, you can understand their frustrations – we go through it as well. And it’s our job to make the changes. Whether they’re short-term in terms of shaking it up or long-term, people have to step up.

“At the minute, players have been getting opportunities. Other players might get opportunities – and then it’s up to them to step up and hold the place down in the team.”