Hibernian's David Gray Faces Pressure Ahead of Key Cup Tie
David Gray is walking straight into the storm, and he knows it.
Hibernian’s head coach has heard the criticism, felt the frustration and seen the questions swirl around a stuttering start to the season. He just refuses to let it dictate his week.
On Saturday in Dingwall, his team go after something that has so far eluded his reign – a semi-final. Beat League 1 side Ross County in the Premier Sports Cup and Hibs will be in the last four, with a Hampden trip on the line and some of the noise turned down.
Right now, though, the volume is up.
Two Premiership defeats on the spin, to Heart of Midlothian and St Johnstone, have sharpened the glare. So did passing up a prime chance to reach the Conference League. For a manager in the early stages of his third season in charge, the scrutiny has arrived early and with an edge.
Gray doesn’t pretend otherwise.
“That’s the life of a football manager,” he said. “You’re judged on results and that doesn’t change. If I’d won three or four games in a row, I’d still put pressure on myself to be better every day.
“If you think you’ve completed it and stand still, football has a way of changing very quickly, both in a positive way and a negative way.”
This is not the first time he has been under the gun at Easter Road. At the start of his managerial career, Hibs won just one of his first 15 league games, yet the board held their nerve. Gray, though, is clear that the context has shifted.
“Malky [Mackay, sporting director] was also just in the door in terms of the structure and the transitional period that the club was in at that time,” he said. That was a club in flux, a project being built on the fly.
Now? The foundations are firmer, the expectations sharper.
“Would I have expected [criticism] to come on quicker now because we’re a bit more settled and we’ve had time to do things? Naturally. I’m not averse to criticism, I’m not shying away from it.
“I’m certainly not put off by it in terms of feeling sorry for myself. If anything, it’s the opposite.”
The timing of this cup tie feels significant. Hibs have not reached a semi-final since November 2023, when they lost to Aberdeen in the same competition. Gray was on the coaching staff then under Nick Montgomery, close enough to feel how quickly a cup run can change the mood around a club.
So when he sat down with his players at the start of this season and laid out the targets, one ambition sat right at the top.
“When we spoke about challenges and objectives at the start of the season, getting to Hampden was right at the very top of the list,” he said.
That is why he cannot afford to be dragged under by external reaction.
“If I allow the noise to affect what we’re doing or distract me in any way then you just go under in that situation.
“I’ve been through adversity before and the focus is simply that we need to make sure we win.
“The form and everything else doesn’t matter this weekend. It’s about making sure everyone knows the job in hand, which is a real chance to get to Hampden.”
The job in hand is far trickier than the league ladder suggests.
Ross County may be in League 1, but they are unbeaten and brimming with confidence. Veteran striker Brian Graham already has nine goals this season, one of them in a home draw with Dundee in the group stage of this competition. They have kept a full-time model, retained their core and look every inch a club intent on climbing back.
“They’ve stayed full-time and kept their core together,” Gray said of the Highland side, relegated from the Championship. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they found themselves back in the Premiership again with the infrastructure, players and management team they’ve got.
“They’ve started the season really well, they’re used to winning games and they’ll be playing with confidence. That adds to the challenge we’ve got.”
So the equation for Hibs is brutally simple. A place at Hampden, a first semi-final under Gray, and a badly needed jolt of momentum – or another long, awkward inquest about where this team is really heading.
