Hibs welcomed their mystery sniper into the building yesterday - and assistant boss Adam Owen hopes the marksman can help get their Easter Road hitmen firing under pressure.
The serving sharpshooter - whose identity was being kept secret by club officials - was brought in by Lee Johnson to give his players a motivational pep talk. And while the manager himself remains 50/50 to make a return from surgery for Saturday’s trip to face Dundee United, his number two Owen reckons the appearance of the rifleman will ensure there’s no slacking.
Owen said: “It was a bit different! The manager is always trying to get players thinking in different ways and challenging them.It was really good in terms of showing the different sorts of pressures - similar pressures to some extent, although life and death is a little bit different. But there were some really good examples of dealing with pressure, stress, anxiety.
“It's just good to get the players thinking in a different way about their own actions and how they deal with different situations and even desires and motivations to be better."
New Easter Road striker Harry McKirdy will be hoping the session can fire him up to open his account. The colourful frontman arrived on deadline day from Swindon and made an instant impression.
Owen just hopes his shooting is as sharp as his clobber. He said: “Harry’s dress sense has cheered up the changing room! He has integrated really well and the lads have taken to him.
“Everybody’s different. A squad is built up of many different characters and that’s what makes a club. If everyone was the same there would be a load of robots walking round.
“Harry missed a bit of training when he signed because he had a couple of late nights with the transfer window. He found it a bit of a culture shock in terms of how we work and what we demand of players in training.
“But he has adapted really well. It’s a massive positive to get another player through the door with quality, that’s a goal threat.”
McKirdy could be thrown in from the start against United with Elias Melksersen doubtful following his concussion last weekend.
Hibs are chasing back-to-back league wins for the first time since they were last at Tannadice on Boxing Day. But whether Johnson will be in the dug out as he continued his recovery from gallbladder surgery remains to be seen.
Owen said: “He’s popped in the last few days and is progressing well. It’s such a nasty thing to go through. He’s taking it day by day and it just depends how he’s feeling. The hope is that he will try and be at the game in some capacity.
“He’s on the phone and is very involved. He was watching last week's game at home and it gives us a chance to interact and see what he’s saying and make sure he’s imparting what he sees at home so we can act on it.
“What he saw was pretty similar to us. You do tend to see a different game sitting in the stand but the information coming to us helped secure what we were seeing in the dug out too.
“The type of person he is he wants to be in amongst it straight away. It’s important he recovers first. We can pick up the pieces between us all.
“There’s myself, Jamie, Dave and Stuart the goalie coach. We are in a good place after last week and training has been really good.”
Josh Doig ’s goal on his first Serie A start for Verona brought a smile to East Mains through the week. And Owen admits the former Hibee is the perfect example of what’s possible in the game.
He said: “I heard a couple of the lads talking about it. The staff are delighted for him. We only had a chance to work with Josh for a short period of time. He seemed a good kid, down to earth. You always monitor players careers through the stages.” Absolutely fantastic, especially when you look at this club over the past few years.
"I was fortunate enough to be around Scottish football for ten years before I came back and he's a great example of what you can achieve when you work hard, you apply yourself well, that the opportunity is there in the game to move on and do well for yourself in the longer term."
Meanwhile Owen - a former performance director at Rangers - admits he could see where Gio van Bronckhorst was coming from when the Gers boss admitted the Ibrox club couldn’t compete with the Champions League big boys.
He said: "I understand what he means by it. It's very difficult to compete but every club has their own difficulties in their own way. You cut your cloth accordingly and deal with the budget requirements you have.
“Whatever club you're at, and you'll always have your frustrations, the key is about trying to maximise performance technically, tactically, physically and try to squeeze every ounce out of the players that you need to try to get to the next level.
"That's what we're trying to do here under the manager's guidance.”
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