A Season Of Two Halves: How Have Hibernian Turned It Around?

The Scottish Premiership title was decided some time ago, as Celtic had a perfect start to the season. Even though that hasn’t continued for the whole campaign, they are still 13 points ahead of Rangers, their next closest competitors. The rest of the table is still uncertain, with quite a few teams hoping to qualify for European football next year. Hibernian, Aberdeen and Dundee United are all within three points of each other in third, fourth and fifth respectively, however they haven’t all been performing to a high standard for the whole season.

Hibernian’s Terrible Start

There was some optimism surrounding Hibernian in the summer prior to this season starting. It was set to be the first transfer window and preseason following a £6m investment into the club from the Black Knight Group, who also own AFC Bournemouth and Auckland FC. They also managed to capture the signatures of Marvin Ekpiteta and Junior Hoilett, two players who many thought could really help them push on during this campaign.

𝐇𝐎𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐓 is a 𝐇𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐄 🇨🇦

Welcome to Hibernian FC, Junior Hoilett! 😄

👉 https://t.co/doTfCYHx6q pic.twitter.com/FkiVpmBavr

— Hibernian Football Club (@HibernianFC) August 6, 2024

The season started with a shocking 3-0 humiliation to St. Mirren despite Hibernian controlling large parts of the game. Things didn’t get much better for the following matches, as they lost at home to Celtic before conceding in the last few minutes to draw with Dundee and giving away a penalty in added time against Kilmarnock to throw away another two points. ‘Hibsing it’ is a term that rivals use to describe Hibernian’s frequent capitulations, a bit like ‘Spursy’, and it was brought out again at the start of this season.

Hibs did manage to get their first win of the season at the fifth attempt with a 2-0 victory over St Johnstone, however that wasn’t the turning point that they had hoped for. Dwight Gayle joined the club in September as a free agent, to help their goal scoring woes, and while he did manage to get a goal in his third appearance for the club, it wasn’t enough to stop another capitulation. Gayle’s goal had put Hibernian 2-1 up against Dundee United with just 18 minutes to go, but a subsequent red card threw the cat amongst the pigeons before two added time goals gave United all three points.

By the 7th of December, Hibernian were rock bottom of the league, having won just two games all season. Manager David Gray, who was in just the first year of his first permanent coaching role, was in a precarious position, however his legacy as a player at the club gave him some wiggle room. He made some changes to the team, most notably in goal and switching to a back three, and results started to go their way. Josef Bursik, who is on loan at the club from Club Brugge, was dropped from the team after a string of poor performances in goal and was replaced by Jordan Smith. Smith had joined Hibernian from Stockport County in the summer and has made a bigger impact already than he had dreamed of.

An Unstoppable Force

Since Gray made these changes, Hibernian have been unstoppable, having not lost a league game since the 7th of December. The biggest sign that something was changing was their 3-1 win over Aberdeen, who were third at the time, just before Christmas. The Dons had not been in great form leading up to this game, but that win, followed by a victory over local rivals Hearts, helped Hibernian push on.

𝗙𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻 league games unbeaten! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/xi5ljCTNbI

— Hibernian Football Club (@HibernianFC) March 29, 2025

Both Martin Boyle, who has played over 300 times for the club, and Gayle found a bit of form at the turn of the year and haven’t looked back since. Even the ‘Hibsing’ attitude has reversed as they managed to come from behind three times to draw 3-3 against Rangers in January and scored twice late on to beat Dundee United 3-1, having conceded in the fourth minute.

Each week, Scottish football fans expected it to be the week that Hibernian’s unbeaten run would come to an end, but Hibs just kept on grinding out results, whether it be a nervy 0-0 draw with 10 men, or a shocking 2-1 victory over league leaders Celtic. Now, there are two games left of the first phase of the Scottish Premiership this season, and Hibernian are in third position, having already guaranteed a top six finish. Should they finish in third come the end of the season, then they will qualify for the qualifying stages of the Europa League. They haven’t made it into the Group Stage of any European competition since Group Stages were introduced.

Hibernian fans should be encouraged by these performances as they could be the beginning of a new era at the club. With the Black Knight group’s clubs performing well in the Premier League and the A-League, it could be a sign that they have plans for the Scottish club.