Hibernian interim manager John Potter revealed that some Hibs players still have the departure of head coach David Gray in the forefront of their minds.

Potter, who was a part of David Gray’s backroom team, was handed the responsibility of caretaker manager for Saturday’s 1–1 draw with Aberdeen at Easter Road.

In the aftermath of Saturday’s match, Potter admitted it had been a difficult week but insisted that the club need to try and move on as quickly as possible and return to winning games on a more consistent basis.

Potter said: “Everybody knew him really well, so it was difficult, especially Thursday. I said Friday, I just sat with the players and said, ‘We have to get on with our job. There’s a little bit of a break after that.’

“We have to try and win a game of football. But you can still see it in some of them. Even today before the game, you could see some of them are hurting a little bit.
“But it’s football and it’s important that we just try and move on.

“Dave is saying we want the players to move on to try and win games. At the end of the day, that’s our job, to try and win games of football for Hibs.”

Kevin Nisbet put Aberdeen ahead against his former club with a close-range finish in the first half before Martin Boyle levelled the game in the 62nd minute from the penalty spot.

Potter believed that a draw was a fair result, whilst praising his team for an improved second-half performance, but admitted there was a sense of disappointment that his side were unable to go on and find a winning goal.

“I think in terms of the game, we had some good moments. Second half was much better. I still think the first half we got into good areas, but didn’t maybe commit that extra body or a bit sloppy with the extra pass.

“But the second half was much better. The one thing I would say, I think if anyone was going to win it, I did think we were pushing for that. But Aberdeen are a massive threat going the other way on the break, so we had to keep numbers back just to make sure that they didn’t hit us going the other way.

“So yeah, probably a fair result, but maybe a little bit disappointed that we couldn’t get the winner.”

With the first international break of the season coming up, Hibs are due to fly out to Spain next Saturday for a short training camp in La Manga.

Potter expects to have a clearer indication within the coming days as to what his position at the club may look like moving forward, but says the priority right now is for the club to not rush a managerial appointment before Saturday, despite claiming that the Easter Road hierarchy may feel as though it would be ideal to have the new manager in place for the training camp.

“For myself, I’m sure I’ll find out in the next couple of days what the club want to do going forward. We’ve put a plan in place where we go away to La Manga next Saturday for a small training camp. That’s all being organised by whoever’s in charge.

“If a new manager’s in, or a new head coach is in, or a coaching team, they’ll obviously take that. But there’s plans in place for that, if not. That’s not really my decision, but we are organised if we need to be there.

“I’m sure ideally they would love to, but the most important thing is they get the right person for that job. For me, that’s more important than anything else, but honestly it’s not my decision. I just think that getting the right person is the most important thing.”

Next up for Hibs after the break is a trip to Dundee to face Jim Goodwin’s Dundee United.