Hibs star’s message to ‘unbelievable’ Elie Youan after stormy fan row

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Elie Youan was back to his Hibs best during the win over Ross County at the weekend.

The French forward has had a difficult campaign and hadn’t scored all season until Saturday.

On top of that, there was a flashpoint with a Hibs fan as Youan had to be dragged away from an angry confrontation by teammate Jordan Obita.

Hibees supporters thought it was an “embarrassing” moment as the 25-year-old was criticised for his reaction to criticism from the stands which sparked the argument.

Weeks later and he was at the centre of controversy again.

Former Easter Road midfielder Marvin Bartley slammed Youan for his reaction after Hibs had a man sent off against Dundee, as he was seen casually doing keepie-uppies with the ball during the break in play.

Manager David Gray defended Youan and insisted there was no issue as he had already been given his instructions for what was to happen after going a man down.

• READ MORE: Ross County collapse against Hibs as Motherwell & Dundee United play out thriller – Premiership round-up

Youan back on form for Hibs

Youan has been in and out of the Hibs side this season as he looked a shadow of the player who produced 10 goals and 10 assists last season.

But he made the difference against County with one goal and one assist.

Obita, the man who dragged him away from the fan incident, was asked post-match what he had said to his teammate.

And he explained: “I was just saying to him that unfortunately it’s part of the game. You’re going to get criticism; you’ve just got to take it and show people what you’re good at.

“Unfortunately, as a creative player, that’s what you have to deal with. Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn’t. When it does come off, he’s just got to believe in himself to keep doing it every single week.

“Everyone knows Elie’s quality, he’s a top player, especially when he’s on top of his game. He’s very hard to play against, we see it in training all the time. Not just him, everybody needs to do it on the pitch in a game day.

“Obviously on social media, a lot of stuff has been said negatively about Elie, but he’s a very strong-minded person and he always believes in himself. When he does show that confidence, he’s an unbelievable player.”

David Gray challenges Hibs players

Gray has been challenging his team to show they have the mental fortitude to pull themselves up the table amid their fight.

“Yes, he has challenged us,” admitted Obita. “Look at our squad, it’s quality, but I believe this season we’ve not shown it enough. Now it’s the right time to try and show our quality because we’ve got so much in the changing room, we just need to get it on the table.

“This gives us massive confidence, you know, because obviously we didn’t start well, the game wasn’t pretty, but to get the three points will give us massive encouragement going forward. In his meeting before the game, he told us if we won, we could go to eighth, and we knew it was going to be difficult.

“Ross County are not a pretty team, they’re quite a solid, hard to break down team, and quite a scrappy team to play against. So obviously the game wasn’t great to watch, but the main thing was to get the three points and give us confidence going into Aberdeen next week.”