'Just got to take it': How Hibs have rallied around Elie Youan as forward inspires climb up table

Defeating Ross County 3-1 on Saturday at Easter Road lifted Hibs out of the relegation places, leapfrogging the Staggies in the process. The six-pointer tag slapped on this match was justified. Had Hibs lost, head coach David Gray could well have been in grave peril. He and his team are far from being out of the woods yet, but at least they can see some light.

Hibs started this game dreadfully, right enough. They conceded early when Eli Campbell headed home just three minutes in and could barely string a sequence of passes together. Goalkeeper Jordan Smith made a couple of smart saves to keep the Staggies at bay and in the sixth minute of first-half stoppage time, experienced striker Dwight Gayle levelled with his own cute header. It gave Hibs impetus in the second half.

Even then, it wasn’t entirely straightforward against a Ross County team that has now gone 25 top-flight matches without winning outside of Dingwall. Nicky Cadden missed a penalty on 70 minutes, only for another one to be awarded three minutes later. Elie Youan did convert, before setting up Josh Campbell for the coup de grace right at the death.

“It gives us massive confidence, you know, because obviously we didn't start well,” said Hibs defender Jordan Obita, who came on as a substitute. “The game wasn't pretty, but to get the three points will give us massive encouragement going forward.

“In his meeting before the game, the manager told us if we win today, we can go to eighth, and we knew today was going to be difficult. They're 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.”

Asked what the impact psychologically is of jumping up the standings, Obita replied: “Massive, you know. When we played against Aberdeen at home [a 3-3 draw], that gave us probably the most courage to believe in ourselves, because we easily could have just gone back in our shell and been negative. But ever since that game there, we've started to believe more in ourselves and the results have been more positive.”

Hibs’ upturn in fortunes have coincided with performance levels improving from their enigmatic French forward Elie Youan. He was one of the better players at Easter Road, scoring his first goal of the season with an impressive penalty and being involved in the other two home goals.

Youan’s season has been poor to date, not helped by injury, abuse from some of his own supporters and a well-documented social media spat with former Hibs midfielder Marvin Bartley for doing keepy-uppies while Obita was sent off during a defeat by Dundee. The left-back leapt to his teammate’s defence.

“Everyone knows Elie's quality,” continued Obita. “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.”

Obita had to restrain Youan just a few weeks ago when he was confronting some of his own fans. “I was just saying to him that unfortunately it's part of the game,” revealed the defender. “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.”

Ross County had gripes with the amount of time added on by referee Lloyd Wilson in the first half, claiming that the official should have ended the first period before Gayle was allowed to score. It was a break for Hibs, something they have not experienced much of this season. Now they have to kick on in a busy festive period, starting next week at Pittodrie. A derby match at Hearts comes next on Boxing Day, with further games against Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and Rangers.

“Look at our squad, it's quality,” added Obita, “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 had a great run-up heading into Celtic – and the result at Celtic Park probably didn’t reflect our performance. Now that we’ve got another positive result against Ross County, we just need to make sure that next time we actually play a bit better than we did in this one. Because we didn't start the game really well. At the end of the day, we got the result.

“Sometimes it's not about how you play, it's about the result. Just win. That's what everyone want, you know, just get the win. Especially when you've got those games coming up. Obviously, it's getting really tight now, especially around Christmas time.

“We just want to get the three points to climb that table.”