A fresh face and fresh ideas.
Martin Boyle is loving life working under new Hibernian manager Nick Montgomery.
The 41-year-old is three games into his tenure at Easter Road having replaced Lee Johnson at the helm of the club earlier this month.
He’s unbeaten so far in that time with two wins and a draw away. Hibs progressed to the semi-finals of the Viaplay Cup on Wednesday night with a 4-2 victory over on-form St Mirren on home soil. They will take on Aberdeen in the last four of that competition in early November.
Boyle scored twice in the game which was an entertaining encounter in the capital. The Buddies held their own for large spells, but patience was the aim of the game from the hosts.
It has taken Boyle a while to get back into full flow in a Hibs shirt since his return from Saudi a little over 12 months ago. A serious knee injury ruled him out for a large section of last term, while Hibs’ poor form in the early weeks of this campaign was a struggle for all players at the club. Boyle is ready to kick on under the new head coach, and he can’t wait for another day out at the national stadium.
“It was a very important win and it’s great to have another trip to Hampden,” the Australia international said. “The fans can look forward to that, we can look forward to it. There is a lot of work to be done before then but we can definitely look forward to the occasion.
“It is definitely what we strive to achieve every season. We had a good spell over the past few years of getting there but last year we definitely underachieved. It is always good to get there and I feel like we deserved it tonight.
“I’m getting a lot of minutes and I am back to full match sharpness. The new manager has come in and given us a new lease of life. He has different tactics and we are obviously just getting used to that. It’s good to get on the ball and create like I always try to do.
“He has been fantastic and I think we are enjoying the tactics he’s brought in. Training has been long and he has changed a lot around the place. He is definitely instilling in us the way he wants to play and I think you can see that in the last few games. We are playing out from the back and creating a lot of chances, and we are scoring a lot of goals which is great.
“He just said we should stay patient. We worked hard in training and we knew that they would sit behind the ball. They were 1-0 up away from home so we needed to remain patient and try to shift them around and try to get into positions to score goals.
“I felt we got off to a great start [after the break] with the early goal and we dominated after that. We did concede a sloppy goal but it was great character from the lads to get the reaction.”
Stephen Robinson’s men had already shown this season that they’re more than capable of beating Hibs. They put them to the sword on the opening weekend of the campaign in Edinburgh.
The Paisley side are flying high, currently sitting second in the table. So, the victory for Hibs is somewhat of a statement result.
Boyle is confident Hibs can go all the way in the competition, with the club’s attacking options proving to be up there with the best in Scotland.
He added: “You could say so but it was a cup competition and both teams were going at it. I think it was a great game for the neutral and fantastic for us. But we know there is a lot more that the manager wants to instil. We believe it is just the beginning, for us, of a new journey and hopefully, we can keep progressing.
“There is so much flair and I just found out that Dylan [Vente] has had five shots and scored five goals so that’s a pretty good stat, isn’t it? We just need to get him into the box more often. Obviously, his link-up play is fantastic, Elie’s pace is electric, and Christian Doidge, we know what he brings, and Alfie [Adam Le Fondre] is an experienced player and helps us a lot around the place and his link-up play and experience are very important to us and we are all striving towards the same goal.”
