Gray deserves some slack

[BBC] It's been a huge week for David Gray. He was able to say with some justification that Hibs have had a "strong start" to the season in the wake of our 0-0 draw in North Macedonia, which set up a Conference League play-off against Gent. Gray has overcome early-season adversity - a shock defeat in Kosovo left a large section of the support pushing for change, while his case was not helped by defeat to Motherwell in the league opener. But we've seen the Hibs boss turn around these situations before, and Sunday's win against Partick Thistle in the Premier Sports Cup was another potential banana skin avoided. The past few games haven't been great on the eye, but it's a results business and Gray is right to feel vindicated by pointing to the start we've had to the season. I'm hoping the noise around his future dies down, but I'd be kidding myself if I claimed everyone was happy with how we've been playing. Considering the schedule and the key players he's been without, Gray deserves some slack from the support. A good result on Thursday in Belgium will go a long way to keeping fans onside, but in the meantime Gray deserves huge credit for finding ways to dig out results even if we're not playing at our best. You can find Matty Fairnie at Longbangers podcast