[0762]

From the papers this morning it looks like some of our players have already given up on gaining promotion and,if so, adds weight to the arguments I have been going on about on 606 for years.
After the game on Saturday Hibs will be saying cheerio to 5 or 6 players from our first team squad because of loans finishing and contracts expiring so I hardly expect them to bust a gut to achieve something they will not be part of.
The same thing happened last year when the team won the first leg and threw it away in the second. There were 7 first team regulars cast adrift after that game and they all knew they were going before the return leg. Hardly surprising that the team produced one of the worst displays of the season that day and I am convinced we will see a team going through the motions on Saturday.
Sadly this means that Alan Stubbs will be scraping around looking for players in July when, with the backing of the board. he could have signed the nucleus of a decent team long before now. There's still an unacceptable football culture at Hibs that really has to change.

Then is it time for a post-match protest outside the West Stand right after this match if this story is true? I dont expect Hibs to be successful on Saturday, much the same as I went to the Falkirk match at Hampden with no belief or trust in certain Hibs players pulling us through against a poorer side than Hibs. Even a silent protest by thousands of disenfranchised Hibs fans would be something to register our anger with the club and a board that has defended the high price of season tickets and sold us this pre-season excuse that the extra money would be ploughed into Stubbs team rebuilding project - the price of failure again? The PO match ticket prices, £15 and £10, just confirm how out of touch Hibs are with decent Hibs fans and loyal ST holders and if Hibs are really stupid enough and unprincipled enough to hand out a full allocation of 3500 tickets to Rangers fans, then it just confirms how out of touch they are with lots of disillusioned, grassroots Hibs fans who regard an allocation of 950 tickets to them as an absolute necessity and also pen these fans into the bottom corner of the South Stand regardless of this stand being filled or not. I certainly don't want to attend this match and observe a full South Stand providing the atmosphere, prob missiles being thrown at our goalkeeper again and rubbing up Hibs fans during this match and in the post-match celebrations!! We have endured enough in the past 18 months! There's still an unacceptable football culture at Hibs that must change before we can progress properly.