Joe Newell, the Hibernian midfielder, believes the full focus of his team-mates will be on tonight’s cinch Premiership match against Dundee despite the looming presence of Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup final. David Gray will again take interim charge of the capital club following the sacking of Jack Ross last week.
Gray’s first match in the dugout ended in a 1-1 draw away to St Mirren on Saturday. It remains unclear whether or not he will be in charge of Hibs when they face Celtic this weekend, but the club’s first priority is Dundee’s visit to Easter Road.
Hibs have dropped to seventh following a run of just one win in 10 league matches. Were the Edinburgh side to lose tonight, then Dundee would move to within one point of them in the table.
“I think it might have been more difficult [to ignore Sunday] if we were doing a bit better in the league,” Newell said when asked if attention might be elsewhere this evening. “But the fact we are on this run and we know how important these games are and how important the game at the weekend was and how important this [Dundee] game is, I have to be honest, then no.
“Our attention is fully on [Dundee] and hopefully we can win and go into the weekend in a bright mood and be buzzing for it. But until then, then no, we genuinely can’t afford to not be thinking about [Dundee] or take [the game] lightly.”
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Neil Lennon has emerged as a serious contender to replace Ross. The 50-year-old managed Hibs between 2016 and 2019 and is reportedly interested in a return to Leith. Alex Neil and Derek McInnes are also among the bookmakers’ favourites.
“Obviously, I’m not going to lie and say I don’t look at it,” Newell said. “You see it everywhere. You go on your phone, you’ve got people texting you, you go on Twitter and see all these names. I don’t know anything. There’s no point paying attention to it until someone walks through the door.”
Gray played under Lennon and although the interim manager would not be drawn on his potential return to, he praised the impact of his former boss during his time at Easter Road.
“He brought success to the club,” Gray said. “When he was here we won the Championship, I was the captain and I had a good relationship with him. He was very demanding, the standards he expected were very high.
“He’s managed at a high level and he has an aura about him and he demands respect and rightly so. It’s nothing to do with me if he comes back or not, that’s up to the powers that be moving forward.”
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“I can’t look past the Dundee game,” he said. “That was my same position for the St Mirren game. My full focus was on that game and now our attention turns to Dundee.
“By the end of the week, if the position is still the same, then we can start talking about that. But the full focus has to be on Dundee. It’s a massive game for us and one of the games in hand. We need to make sure we get three points. If we win, we go two points off fourth, which is where we want to be.”
Hibernian v Dundee
cinch Premiership
Tonight, kick-off 7.45pm
TV: Hibs TV
