Christian Doidge insists Hibernian were not far away from success under Paul Heckingbottom but believes the changes made by Eddie May were key to a first Ladbrokes Premiership victory in three months.
May, the club’s head of player development, was placed in temporary charge following Heckingbottom’s sacking last Monday.
And he got an instant response as Doidge scored a hat-trick, his first league goals for the club, and
Scott Allan also netted in a 4-1 win at St Johnstone.
Doidge said: “Eddie was really supportive all week and it’s been a fun week. I think that showed in our performance, the boys went out there and really gave it a good go.
“I think the shape helped us, with me and Flo [Kamberi] playing up front together. I thought he was fantastic and unfortunately he didn’t get his goal.
“But he set me up twice, which was nice. Also, getting the best out of Scott Allan, playing in the 10. He’s probably one of the best in the league in that position.
“Drawing games of football is hard to take, especially when we’ve been in winning positions.
“The pressure got to us in the last couple of games, where we’ve conceded a couple. But I really think we weren’t far away, at all, from winning well.”
The Welshman’s initial shot was too close to Zander Clark but the rebound fell kindly and he made no mistake second time round.
He then doubled Hibs’ lead in the 17th minute as he was left with a simple tap-in after being found just three yards out by Kamberi’s low cross.
Boss Tommy Wright, linked with the Northern Ireland manager’s job, said: “We weren’t getting carried away. We know with this squad it’s going to be an up and down season and we’ve got to be patient with them.
“They’re going to have to learn quickly and they’ll gain from these bad experiences.
“They’re going to have to get that level of consistency that is needed to pick up points and to get you away from the bottom of the table.”
