Hibs fans were probably relieved to see one man lose his starting place against Aberdeen on Tuesday night.
Goalkeeper Josef Bursik had started every Premiership game this season for the Hibees but boss David Gray dropped him after an embarrassing blunder against Dundee at the weekend.
Jordan Smith, who joined from Stockport County in the summer, was picked to replace Bursik between the sticks – but he was at fault for one of the Aberdeen goals.
Smith failed to deal with a Dons cross and it led to Nicky Devlin scoring his side’s second of the match to take the lead at the time.
Hibs would fight back to earn a 3-3 draw but Gray was left fielding questions about Smith after yet another Hibs goalkeeping error.
The manager said it was a big decision to swap Bursik for Smith and tried to justify the call despite the mistake made in the 76th minute.
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Gray defends Jordan Smith call
Gray said: “I think I said before the game, when you’re not getting results, I’ve got big decisions to make every single week. I obviously had to make a big one on the goalkeeper tonight.
“But he also made some big saves within the game, the free kick, he actually makes a save in the first half that keeps it 0-0, which is a huge moment.
“Because I think the first goal was going to be important for us, confidence-wise, the way the game had been going and the noise around the game.
“And probably the expectation, not from within, but about where we are at the moment. So that was a big bit of pressure going on in the game. Credit to the players for keeping going.
“Yes, we got punished for a mistake, but the players were able to turn that around tonight and get at least a point from the game, which we fully deserved. At least.”
Jordan Smith’s stats vs Aberdeen
This was just the second start this season for 29-year-old Smith having made his debut in the Premier Sports Cup against Kelty Hearts.
FotMob handed him a 4.6 match rating for his performance versus Aberdeen, of course making one error which led to a goal and conceding three on the night.
He did however, as Gray alluded to, make four saves in the game including the one in the first-half that Gray described as a ‘huge moment’.
Moreover, Smith had a pass accuracy of 42 percent and made 7 out of 22 accurate long balls, which is a 32 percent success rate.
It appears Gray may stick with Smith as Hibs travel to Motherwell at the weekend searching for that elusive victory.