Hibernian veteran Lewis Stevenson is in the process of proving himself to yet another Easter Road manager as he prepares for the visit of Rangers on Friday night.
The 31-year-old left-back made his Hibs debut under Tony Mowbray in 2005 and since then has seen eight other bosses come and go, with Paul Heckingbottom taking over from Neil Lennon last month.
The one-time Scotland international admits he has to make sure the former Barnsley and Leeds manager likes what he sees.
“I think it is my 10th manager,” said Stevenson.
“Of course (I have to prove myself), especially with the manager coming from England, you don’t know how much he knows about the team and the players.
“But he seemed to know a lot about us, he knew nicknames and positions.
“I have learned something different from every manager that has come in and this is no different.
“Every day you learn things, no matter what age you are, you still want to improve and get better.
“He looked at videos of games before and he thought we looked a bit ragged and that has been proved in the last four games, we have kept a good shape.
“We do analysis on games and training. It is different from before but we are all going in the right direction and enjoying it.”
Heckingbottom is a fan of statistics which means there is no hiding place for the Hibs players, who have won three and lost one of the four games the Englishman has overseen.
Stevenson said: “We never used to do it before but from his first game we have worn the GPS (tracking system) and I think the distances and speeds are up.
“There are stats everywhere, you see it more and more in the game now.
“It is good. They do a lot of stats stuff in American sports and people even get signed on their stats.
“It can be a major part of the game and it shows how much the game has moved forward.
“I don’t think we are trying harder. Training is different, a lot of tactical stuff and shape and working on individual stuff.
“But we have always trained hard and we work as hard as we used to do.”
Hibs held second-placed Rangers to a goalless draw in Leith on December 19 before they fought out a 1-1 draw at Ibrox on Boxing Day.
Stevenson said: “The last time Rangers came here it was probably the best performance a team has put in at Easter Road (since both clubs came back to the Premiership).
“They are organised, they have an attacking threat, they have a lot of players on form as well.
“I was very impressed and we were probably lucky to get the draw.
“It was probably the opposite when we went to Ibrox later on.
“We know it is going to be a tough game but I think if we can implement our game we have a good chance.”
