Lee Johnson has revealed how a supporters’ get-together helped lift his spirits in the wake of last Saturday’s ‘damp squib’ against Motherwell.
The Easter Road side missed a gilt-edged chance to haul themselves into the race for third when they succumbed to a 3-1 defeat at home to the Steelmen.
It left Johnson, who had served a touchline ban during the game, nursing the hurt of a painful bodyblow.
He admits he was not in the mood to face the fans at a player of the year awards event at the Hibs Club just 24 hours later, but left re-energised by the meeting.
Seeking an instant response away to Dundee United on Sunday, he said: “I’m up here on my own, effectively. My family are back down in Bristol, and what that means is you’re all in, from seven in the morning until 11 at night.
“Whether you’re looking at data, the opposition, watching training back, trying to find ways to improve players.
“So it can become super intense and when a crescendo builds up to a game and then the game is a damp squib in terms of our performance it is disappointing, it bloomin’ hurts.
“You want to do well, you want the club to do well, it’s not about me, it’s about giving all I have got to add value to the football club.
“When that falls short for whatever reason you take responsibility, as all managers do. You take a day to settle.
“We had the Sunnyside fans’ player of the year awards on Sunday and you’re thinking, ‘I could do without this’.
“But in reality you get there and you realise they’re the proper supporters, they’re fully behind the lads and you.
“And it turned from something I went into thinking, ‘this’ll be tough’, to coming out really encouraged and buoyed by the fact that when the dust is settled, the supporters love the lads, love the staff, love what we’re trying to do. They can see it.”
The Motherwell defeat left Hibs in sixth and five points adrift of rivals Hearts in third, and Johnson has confessed the setback was tough to take.
He added: “Every day I get up and come to training, it is not a slog for me. This is a front-foot, full-on drive to take the club forward.
“And the frustrating thing is taking two steps forward and one step back, just when you think you’ve cracked it.
“People tell me this a lot about Hibs. And it slaps you in the face!”
