In more than a decade of professional football, Joe Newell has experienced many different management styles but one thing has remained constant: his desire to score more goals.
The Hibernian midfielder has come up with some big ones: a winner for Rotherham United at Elland Road in 2015, a decisive
103rd-minute penalty in the South Yorkshire derby against Doncaster Rovers three years later, which he celebrated “with a knee slide into a fan who stunk”. A precious play-off goal against Scunthorpe as the Millers returned to the Championship at the end of that same season.
Great moments but sporadic to the point of vanishingly rare, especially since he moved to Easter Road in the summer of 2019. Newell netted in his third appearance, a League Cup win over Elgin, but in 54 outings since, he has scored only one further goal, away to St Mirren last September. As Jack Ross’s side look to tighten their grip on third place, where better than Ibrox today for the 28-year-old to finally add to his tally?
“Scoring the winner at Ibrox would be right up there, definitely,” Newell admits. “I don’t think I’d even celebrate, I’d just be shocked, the way things have been going. I’m close to giving up, to be honest — the ball just isn’t going in!
“I’ve never really been one for targets, that might be more of a striker thing. My position is more
all-round, so you’re trying to pitch in wherever you can. But I know I need to try to add more goals to my game. It will obviously help the team if I can pitch in with five league goals a season. Going forward, that’s definitely something I’ll be trying to work on, but at the minute I’m maybe going to start shutting my eyes, shooting and praying it goes in!”
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Hibs arrive in Glasgow with grounds to believe they can be the side to end Rangers’ hopes of an unbeaten league season. They were only the second team to take points off Steven Gerrard’s men this term in a 2-2 capital draw last September, and produced arguably the best display from a visiting Premiership side at Ibrox in the current campaign in a 1-0 defeat on Boxing Day.
“We know we can mix it with them,” says Newell. “Our performances against them and Celtic this season have been good, but we’ve been just that little bit short of a win up to now. Hopefully we’ll get that on Sunday.
“Rangers have had an unbelievable season. They’ve been brilliant and thoroughly deserve the title, but you’d be lying if you said you didn’t want to go there and break their unbeaten season. We’re in good form and I don’t think the fact that the title’s wrapped up and they’re playing for nothing will really affect them. Their standards are that high that they’ll be good and competitive regardless. It should be a good game.
“Third would represent a good season. The club hasn’t finished in that position for 16 years so it would reflect a good season. Outside the Old Firm we’re the best team at the minute and we just need to maintain those levels to get it.”
Newell is still adamant he should have had a penalty in that December fixture, when a high challenge from eventual match-winner Ianis Hagi was deemed legal by referee Willie Collum.
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“I still get abuse on Twitter every now and again for diving!” he says. “I definitely felt something, so I don’t know whether I’ve headed the ball and he’s booted the ball from the other side or what. It’s one of them where if it was on the halfway line, the referee would give a free-kick for a high foot. But you might need to get punched on the side of the head to get a penalty.”
Newell speaks warmly of the contrast between Ross and Neil Warnock, who was his Rotherham manager for three months in 2016.
“He came in, worked his magic, we stayed up [in the Championship] and then he left. He was great. I missed a chance when we were 1-0 down away to Burnley [nine days after Warnock took over] with 10 minutes to go, and he pulled me into his office to tell me I would be on the bench for the rest of the season.
“He said I would be first off the bench every week and that if it had been the start of the season I would be in the team. But the way we were playing, I wouldn’t be getting many minutes.
“I had to respect his honesty. He’s a great bloke and it was fun to work with him.
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“They are two totally different managers. Neil probably dresses a bit better than the gaffer [Ross].
“ The gaffer lets us express ourselves but Neil was very strict: you play in their half and only play the ball down the line, defend in numbers and all the rest of the clichés.
But we have a different style [at Hibs].”