Hibs Struggle After Gray's Departure: Key Questions Remain

It has been a bruising week at Easter Road. Nick Montgomery’s replacement, the popular and relatively successful David Gray, has already been told he is not the man to lead Hibs forward – and that verdict came after just six league games in charge.

Into that emotional fallout stepped Jon Potter, back in his second spell as a coach at the club and suddenly tasked with patching up a dressing room that had just watched a well-liked figure pushed aside. His message was simple: park the blow, cling to the positives, and drag the mood upwards.

For 45 minutes, it fell flat.

Hibs started as if the weight of the week was on every touch. Callum Wright tried to inject some purpose, but he was a lonely spark. The rest of the side looked anxious, loose in possession, and far too generous to an Aberdeen team that happily fed on turnovers and counter-attacks. Every misplaced pass felt like an invitation. Aberdeen accepted most of them.

The visitors’ shape helped.

Stephen Robinson had raised eyebrows earlier in the season when, as his side laboured in a 4-3-3, he dismissed the importance of formations with the line: “shape is for pundits.” The results forced a rethink. Since then, he has gone back to what brought him success at St Mirren – three centre-backs, two strikers, and a platform built on solidity.

The difference is obvious now. Aberdeen press with more conviction, defend with more authority and, when they break, they carry real menace thanks to the pace up front.

Mats Knoester has become the defensive reference point, comfortably the club’s best centre-back, reading danger and attacking the ball. In front of him, Afeez Aremu has been everywhere in recent games – snapping into tackles, pinching possession, then keeping things tidy with simple passes that launch attacks rather than end them.

That structure allowed Aberdeen to grow into the game, and when their moment came, Kevin Nisbet seized it.

His goal had quality stamped all over it: a sharp touch, a swift turn, and a composed finish. It was the third match running he has found the net, underlining his status as Aberdeen’s primary goal threat and raising a familiar concern for Robinson – who else is going to share the scoring load over the season?

At 1-0 up, Aberdeen looked in control. Hibs looked stuck in the same slow, uncertain rhythm that has dogged them all campaign. The home fans had energy, but the team on the pitch did not match it.

Then the game flipped.

Hibs emerged after the break transformed. Suddenly there was bite in the tackle, purpose in the passing, and a willingness to go more direct and ask awkward questions of Aberdeen’s back line. The tentative probing of the first half gave way to aggression and urgency. They started to pin Robinson’s side back.

The pressure finally told.

For all Aberdeen’s improved organisation, they handed Hibs a route back with a rash challenge from Jack Milne inside the box. It was the sort of moment that drives managers to distraction – not forced by brilliance, just avoidable. From being on course for three points, Aberdeen were dragged into a fight to hold on.

Hibs took full advantage, and on the balance of that second-half surge, they merited their equaliser. Easter Road, flat and edgy earlier, roared back into life.

Yet as the dust settles and club football pauses for a three-week international break, the noise around Hibs will not quieten. The same doubts hang in the air.

• Why can this team not knit together a complete 90-minute performance?
• Why do they so often begin games in a daze, only sparking once they are chasing?
• And, most fundamentally, does this squad actually contain the level of quality required to climb the table rather than simply survive in it?

Those are not questions for Potter. They are for the next permanent manager, whoever the board decides that should be. The search now dominates the landscape at Easter Road.

Up the road, Robinson can at least cling to something more stable. After a torrid start to the season, he has a system that works, a spine he trusts, and a striker in form. He will be furious that Milne’s lapse turned a winning position into dropped points, but he can also see foundations starting to harden beneath his team.

Hibs, by contrast, head into the break with a spirited comeback, a fractured season, and no clear leader in the dugout. The performance asked one question more loudly than any other: who is going to turn those rousing 45 minutes into a team that finally looks like itself from first whistle to last?