Manager Jimmy Thelin spoke to the media ahead of our final home match of 2024 when Hibernian travel to Pittodrie tomorrow afternoon. RedTV subscribers can watch in full now by clicking here. 

Looking Ahead to Hibs

“It’s important for us, especially at Pittodrie to give everything we can to win at home but always have in mind the opponent and their skills. They are in a good period right now, they are scoring a lot of goals and in a good place but we also have to fight back and give our best performance. If the performance is stable and good we’re also going to get the results. That’s what we’ve focused on over the past two weeks.

“Over the past two weeks we have brought the intensity up again within the squad. Some players had some issues and they are in much better shape now and hopefully they can show that tomorrow. It was a good time for us to recover a little bit and also get a better direction of the game. We were not happy with the performance against St Johnstone, I think it was not aggressive enough in our attacking play and these are the kind of things we have been working on, it has more or less been our focus point for these past two weeks.

Injury Update

“Jack Milne will be out for more or less 12 weeks and Vinnie is out for more or less around 16 weeks. It’s not good news for the players of course. I talked to both of them, they are strong characters and have an optimistic mindset. We have to go through this together and help them and support them during this period. It’s two good people and two good players. It’s difficult in your career to get this setback but as before we have to support them and give them all we can to make a good way back.

“I told both of them that this can happen but it doesn’t mean that we forget where you were and your place and what you can do. We still believe in the players so we need to support them there.

“When you’re building a squad you have to have the long term, what you want to look like in the future, how we want to evolve as a squad but also sometimes take care of the short term problems we can have. It also gives opportunities to other players and shows what they can do. We are going to take everything, not get stressed but we also have to try to strengthen the team. Let’s see how we do that and also put trust in the players that we have. Let’s see if everything turns around in the coming weeks.

“Jimmy McGarry came off at half-time against St Johnstone but that was more about he hasn’t played so much and the fatigue caught up with him a little bit. Jack MacKenzie has trained in full for the last two weeks, so far everybody is ready to play.

Final Home Match of 2024

“If you look at Hibs’ performance since the last time we played them, they are creating a lot of scoring chances. They have found a good rhythm and are in a good place right now. At home we have had some okay performance, not always the best results. For me you have to perform to deserve the three points. It has not been so bad in some games. We are still on this journey. We have to learn to cope with the intensity, how we want to play. There is a lot of demands on ourselves and what we want to achieve. Sometimes we get small setbacks but you have to go again and try to build this. You can’t build a culture or identity quickly, especially when you don’t always get the results. You have to keep the belief and try again. Tomorrow after these two weeks of training I am really looking forward to the game and how we imagine the game now, I think we are going to be a strong attacking team again and that is what we’re searching for.”