Picking a fight with Yogi Hughes is never a good idea - especially when he’s got Anthony Stokes on his side. That was a lesson I learned the hard way at Falkirk when the teenage Stokesy arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed from Arsenal.
I signed for the Bairns in the same week and expected to be Yogi’s main man. I knew him, had played with him and he’d worked hard to sign me. Stokes was a teenager and I had over 100 SPL games under my belt for Hibs - why should I be concerned about this upstart? Well I should have been worried!
Stokes was in from the start while I got a close up view of his talents .. from the bench. I was raging with Yogi. Why was he playing a loanee in front of me?
We played Dundee United after a couple of weeks and I was on the bench again, ready to rap the manager’s door. Unfortunately that game saw the bold Stokesy hit a hat-trick against Dundee United and I was put right back on my backside.
Six months later I was papped off to Dunfermline after five substitute appearances and zero goals for the Bairns while Stokes hit 16 in 18 games. I reckon Yogi won that argument.
Very few loan deals have that sort of impact though. And right now Hibs ’ loanees are struggling to have much at all. Mykola Kukharevych nabbed his first goal on Friday and looks good but Ellie Youan is struggling for goals and Momodou Bojang and Will Fish have barely been seen.
Throw in back-up goalkeeper Ryan Schofield and it’s five loanees currently on the books at Easter Road. That’s too many. Lee Johnson has been waxing lyrical about his connection with the City Group that’s brought Kukharevych on loan from Troyes. He’s right to build these contacts and use them as and when required to plug gaps and add quality.
But there’s no doubt you can have too many loan players. Hibs went down that route with Terry Butcher and got relegated. Hibs are a club who should have players tied down, especially the core, and then look to their own youth set-up which right now is bursting with talent too.
Unless someone is going to make the kind of impact Stokes did on loan at Falkirk, and later at Easter Road, then there’s no point denying your own players a jersey. It’s not just the loan players who are misfiring right now though as Friday night’s collapse against St Johnstone made it three defeats in a row.
It was a huge disappointment, especially as there was over 20,000 fans inside Easter Road including the highest attendance of home fans for over 33 years. The same happened when they reduced prices for the Saints game last season and got a bumper crowd only to produce a 0-0 snorefest.
The marketing team and owners are producing the goods off the park but the players have to play their part. That was a perfect opportunity to go and give St Johnstone - who were rotten in the first half - a doing and send the 19,500 fans home happy. But it was another opportunity missed from the players.
Speaking of which, missed chances are becoming a real problem and I sound like a broken record in this regard. Hibs had 15 attempts on St Johnstone’s goal - more than double the Perth side - but only scored one.
Johnson needs to find a mix up front that’s going to punish teams. Fourteen goals in 12 league games is not good enough. The return of Kevin Nisbet from injury can’t come quick enough. It might not be until after the World Cup break but he’ll be like a new signing when he comes in because if Kevin adds anything it’s a clinical edge in front of goal.
It was even worse at the other end because the two goals Hibs conceded to throw away the points were abysmal. Poor defending from Ryan Porteous on both of them. He didn’t attack the ball for Nicky Clark’s header and tries to claim a foul - it’s never a foul and he has to be stronger. Then he is ball watching when Stevie May nicks in from behind him to head the winner.
I’ve written much about my admiration for Porteous. But he’ll look at the tape and realise he was culpable for both goals.
Saturday’s visit of St Mirren is now huge. Win that and it tees them up for a massive game at Aberdeen the following week. Lose and they could be in danger of losing touch with the top three going into the World Cup break.
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