'It’s not a crisis': David Gray confident struggling Hibernian can return to form

David Gray dismissed any notion of a crisis at Hibernian ahead of Sunday’s bottom-of-the-table showdown with city rivals Hearts.

The Easter Road side have slipped to the foot of the Premiership after winning only one of their eight league games and losing each of their last three.

Despite their current predicament, Gray remains confident things will improve.

“No, it’s not a crisis,” the manager stressed at his pre-Edinburgh derby media briefing on Thursday. “I think it needs to be better, we all know that. I’ve said to the players, we’re not looking for excuses at all.

“We’re not using the fact that we went down to 10 men in the last two games as an excuse for not getting results in the last two. Does it play a factor? Of course it does. I think momentum in games, there’s all sorts of things that go that way against you at times.

“But we also know what’s in the group. We know how good we can be when we do get it right. I’ve still got that firm belief in everybody involved that we will turn it around.”

Gray is in the early stages of his managerial career after being handed the reins at Hibs in the summer following four spells as caretaker boss. The 36-year-old explained how he is analysing every aspect of his work to give Hibs the best chance of an upturn in fortunes.

“I’m not enjoying it at all from the frustration you get during the game,” he said when asked how he was finding the current situation on a personal level.

“But it’s about being measured through it all, trying not to be too high when it’s good, or too low when things don’t go the way you want.

“Are there enough positives in the game to make you think you’re doing things right? I’ll always judge myself, firstly. Was the information I gave right?

“I’ll reflect on decisions I made during the game. And then the flipside to that straight away, the first day back into work, is how can you make the players better again?

“So, working on areas we need to improve, individual meetings, group meetings, all these things to try and get to where we need to get to.

“Because as I’ve said before, I’ve got a very good squad here, lacking a wee bit of confidence at times maybe in certain things, but at the same time in a good place in terms of fitness levels, in a good place in terms of togetherness within the group.

“It’s about now relaying that on to the pitch and making sure we turn the performances into results because that’s what we get judged on at the end of the day.”