David Marshall believes a calm and settled summer in Leith will have Hibs hitting the ground running when the season starts.
With boss Lee Johnson newly appointed this time last year, the Easter Road side crashed out of the League Cup in the group stage before a worrying start to the Premiership campaign. Hibs were victorious on the opening day against St Johnstone but then failed to win in their next four league outings. Marshall and Co rebounded with four successive victories, only for a nightmare spell to follow in which they lost nine of 11 games to heap pressure on Johnson.
He survived to steer Hibs to fifth in the table and, with Aberdeen pulling off a late surge to claim third place, they got to within just two points of rivals Hearts in fourth. Marshall, who was one of 15 new arrivals last summer during a period of flux, admits the massive changes hampered Hibs in the first half of the season.
But with fewer comings and goings expected this time around – and five signings already made – the former Scotland keeper believes they’ll be better prepared as they build up to their Europa Conference League second qualifying round opener at the end of the month.
The 38-year-old skipper said: “You always hope you start the season well. We didn’t last season and, looking back, that is maybe understandable with the changes in players and manager. It’s good to get business done early. It’s no good for the manager to be doing stuff last minute and lads leaving.
“We’d like to think we’re in a better place. We don’t have the League Cup because we qualified for Europe but hopefully when that comes around on the 27th, we’re spot on. We weren’t far away last season. Aberdeen won seven games on the spin and almost doubled their points tally in those seven games. It shows how tight the league is.
“We were disappointed at times last season. The start was quite poor, there were periods in the season we should have done better. But we finished fifth and really close to fourth, so there is room for improvement. We have improved as a squad and I think there will be some other new faces joining before the window closes. It’s good to get new boys in so early.
“You would think that what we’ve added is a bit of quality as well. At the start of last season, when the new manager came in, there was a lot going on in terms of chopping and changing. Hopefully it’s a bit more settled and that gives us a good base to go into the European qualifiers.”
The most notable departure from the squad, who fly out to Spain today for a training camp, has been that of top scorer Kevin Nisbet to Millwall. Marshall confesses the Scotland striker will be a major loss, having grabbed 12 goals in 20 games last term.
He added: “Goals are what he brings and he’s that threat. But in terms of his all-round play, he is an important player. The club have acted by signing Adam Le Fondre pretty early and I’m sure there will be others coming in as well.
“Listen, it is a big miss, it will be tough. But it’s hard to keep players of that level at the club. It’s a big opportunity for him to go to the English Championship. There will always be another player. Martin Boyle is coming back to fitness, so he’ll be a big player when he is back.”
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