HIBERNIAN winger Joe Newell was under no illusions that he would walk straight into the Easter Road starting line-up following an underwhelming start to his career in Scotland.
Newell, along with £350,000 arrival Christian Doidge, has been seen by some supporters as indicative of errant summer recruitment by head coach Paul Heckingbottom.
With ample experience in the English Championship with Rotherham United, the 26-year-old was seen as a marquee capture and expected to be a key part of Heckingbottom’s new-look side. Instead, he has started just two Premiership matches.
However, Newell believes his lack of opportunity owes as much to the quality of his team-mates as any failing on his part, emphasising that he is not seeking to usurp “pub players”.
READ MORE: Hibernian v Celtic | TV times, kick-off, odds and team news
“It is up to you and how you perform,” said Newell. “I would have hoped it would be the case, but I would never expect to play every week. The gaffer did make quite a few new signings but the standard of the lads who were here already is part of it.
“They are good players so it’s not like the new lads have walked into a team full of pub players which would make it a certainty that we were all going to play. It is a good standard here. No one would have expected to just walk into the team and play every week.
“The gaffer [Heckingbottom] can only pick 11 players. He has to pick who he thinks can get him a result.
“It’s tough for whoever’s left out but he’s got to know the lads who aren’t playing are going to remain professional, train well and do everything to help the team.”
In the high point of his Hibs tenure, Newell did climb from the bench in Wednesday evening’s Betfred Cup quarter-final against Kilmarnock to convert what ultimately proved to be the decisive penalty of a fraught shoot-out.
“There was a bit of pressure,” Newell smiles. “But that’s the beauty of it. You just have to try to thrive on that and embrace it. You take it on your shoulders and get on with it.”
Newell hopes that outing can prove to be a turning point personally, and as a club. It was a pivotal triumph for boss Heckingbottom, coming on the back of a five-game run without a win in the league and with supporters growing increasingly impatient.
“The penalty shoot-out win will hopefully spur us on and kick-start our season,” the languid wide-man continued. “We all need to kick on now – myself, the players and the coaches – and show what we are capable of.
READ MORE: Are Livingston the Premiership's dirtiest team?
“We know what we have got here and we know we can be a force in the league. We should be up at the top end of the table.”
Today’s visit of imperious champ-ions Celtic, purring of late, will be a fearsome barometer of whether Hibs have indeed turned a corner.
Heckingbottom’s team faced Celtic – managed by former Easter Road boss Neil Lennon – twice at the tail end of last season, losing once and claiming a creditable draw in Leith in April.
“The gaffer pulled up [last season’s games against Celtic] earlier,” added Newell. “We played them twice in the space of a few weeks after he came in last season and said the second time was a lot better. We got after them more and were on the front foot. We want that to continue.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here