Hibs captain Joe Newell said calling a players-only meeting after the harrowing defeat to Dundee was ‘massively important’ for the team.
And it ended up having the impact Newell hoped for as Hibs earned four points out of a possible six from their following two games against Aberdeen and Motherwell.
Hibs fought back to draw 3-3 with the Dons at Easter Road before winning for the first time since September with a brilliant 3-0 away win over the Steelmen.
Newell admits he thought about calling a players-only meeting a couple of times before actually doing it on the eve of facing Aberdeen.
And his message of sticking together and trying to get the players to relax despite such a difficult time clearly worked wonders.
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Newell on players-only Hibs meeting
Speaking to the Edinburgh Evening News, Newell said: “I’d thought about it a couple of times throughout the season.
“But I think the fact that the same questions were getting asked again of the boys, I thought it was massively important – and it was more of a reminder of the togetherness in the group.
“I’ve stood in front of you guys and repeated myself often enough. And I know a lot of you won’t believe me and you’ll think I’m just saying it.
“But I believe in the group so much and I know the manager does, and I know how much we want it. So it’s not a case of boys sacking it off or anything like that.
“I know the togetherness has always been there. I see it at half-time at Dundee when everyone’s having a go at each other. I see the way we started that game. I see little signs
“So I just wanted to remind everyone that we are together. But we have to stay together.
“There can be no room for anything toxic or bad attitudes or anything; we have to just maintain this level. And then I kind of finished it off by saying just relax, it’s a game of football.
“All of us, players coaches, fans, we’ll all go through much worse times in life than a game of football. There are bigger things.
“I know what it’s like to play for this club. It can be horrendous, it can be horrible, it can be amazing; it can be the best thing in the world. But every club’s like that, to some extent, and football’s like that in general.
“So it was just another reminder of just relaxing and just believing in ourselves and staying together really.
“That obviously comes to fruition Tuesday night with an amazing mad last 10 minutes and then, against Motherwell, I thought it was such a professional performance – something that we’ve been questioned on, again.”
Hibs not getting carried away
Newell continued, saying: “I’m sure everyone will say the same as the gaffer; I’m sure he’ll have said to you that we’re not getting carried away, that we are still a million miles away where this club should be and where we think we can be.
“As soon as we got back in on Monday, it was business as usual. We need to chase the team in front of us.
“But for Saturday, I was so pleased for the manager, so pleased for the fans who travelled in great numbers again – because they deserve it more than anyone. There was so much raw emotion, so much relief.