Hearts and Hibs relegation verdict as one told they’re in ‘more of a fight’

Add as preferred source on Google

Hearts and Hibs are both in a spot of bother in the league.

As we get nearer to the half way point in the Premiership season, both Edinburgh clubs still find themselves as the division’s bottom two.

Stay there by May and one will be straight down, the other in a relegation play-off against a Championship side.

On paper, both have squads that could be labelled ‘too good to go down’ but both clubs know from recent experience things don’t always work that way after both went down in 2014 and the Jambos did it again in 2020.

• READ MORE: 29 England-based out of contract Scottish players putting SPFL clubs on transfer alert

Will Hibs and Hearts be relegated?

Hearts picked up slightly under new boss Neil Critchley but have only actually won two out of five league games under him and haven’t yet been able to move away from the bottom.

On top of that, their next two games are against the Premiership’s top two in Celtic and Aberdeen.

While Hibs have still only won one league game this season under new boss David Gray. They continually shoot themselves in the foot and don’t look capable of putting a run together.

Gray has been under pressure but the Hibs board backed him in a statement released last week.

Assessing the situation, Kris Boyd reckons the Hibees should be the more worried of the two.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
7	DundeeDundee	12	3	3	6	18	24	-6	12
8	KilmarnockKilmarnock	12	3	3	6	15	25	-10	12
9	Ross CountyRoss County	13	2	6	5	10	21	-11	12
10	ST JohnstoneST Johnstone	13	3	1	9	16	27	-11	10
11	Heart Of MidlothianHeart Of Midlothian	13	2	3	8	14	20	-6	9
12	HibernianHibernian	12	1	5	6	11	18	-7	8

“Hearts will finish the top six this season,” Boyd said on The Warm-Up Unfiltered.

On Hibs’ relegation prospects, he added: “I don’t think they’ll go down, but they’re in more a fight. They’re in more trouble than what Hearts are.

“I think it’s way early. I mean, the league is very, very tight.

“It can’t always be the manager’s fault, Hibs have been through five or six managers now inside the last three or four years, there’s got to be something wrong with the structure.

“People keep saying we’ve got a recruitment team in place, you cannot keep getting the players wrong.”

Giving his take on potential relegation for the capital two, Levein said: “No. I don’t think so. No.

“I think they can fix it in January, whatever they do.”

Assessing Hibs and Hearts’ chances

It is easy to see where Boyd is coming from with his assessment that Hearts should be alright given the uptick in performances since Critchley came in.

But their next two fixtures being against Celtic and Aberdeen is enough to strike fear into those in Gorgie.

Their rivals could leapfrog them in that time and then it can be tough to get out of a rut. There is also tough away games against Kilmarnock and Ross County to come and they must do all of this while playing European games on a Thursday night.

Then there is the derby on December 26.

The Hibees don’t have a massively kind fixture list either – with the Dons and Celtic to come soon as well as a trip to Motherwell.

Both clubs could be even further adrift at the bottom by the time they face each other on Boxing Day.

What isn’t helping either is that this season there doesn’t seem to be one or two teams looking a lot weaker than the rest, with the likes of St Johnstone and Ross County capable of picking up plenty of points along the way.