David Gray walks into Dingwall this weekend with criticism swirling around him and a season already carrying a hint of jeopardy. He insists he is not losing sleep over it. He can’t afford to.
Hibernian’s head coach knows exactly what is at stake on Saturday: a place in the last four of the Premier Sports Cup, and the first semi-final of his tenure. Beat Ross County, and the noise quietens. Lose to a League 1 side, and it erupts.
This is only the early stretch of Gray’s third season in charge, but the scrutiny has sharpened. Back-to-back Premiership defeats to Heart of Midlothian and St Johnstone have stung. So did letting a prime opportunity to reach the Conference League slip away. For a club that talks openly about progress and Hampden appearances, the margin for error feels thin.
Gray doesn’t pretend otherwise.
“That’s the life of a football manager,” he said. “You’re judged on results and that doesn’t change. If I’d won three or four games in a row, I’d still put pressure on myself to be better every day.
“If you think you’ve completed it and stand still, football has a way of changing very quickly, both in a positive way and a negative way.”
He has lived that volatility already. At the start of his managerial career, Hibs backed him through a brutal run: just one win in his first 15 league games. He survived it, learned from it, and was given time. Now, he admits, the landscape is different.
Back then, the club was in flux. Malky Mackay had only just arrived as sporting director, the structure was shifting, the whole place in transition. Patience came easier when everything felt new.
Now, it is not a club hiding behind the word “transition”. It is one that has had time to settle, to plan, to recruit. With that comes expectation, and Gray knows the criticism was always going to arrive faster this time.
“Would I have expected [criticism] to come on quicker now because we’re a bit more settled and we’ve had time to do things? Naturally. I’m not averse to criticism, I’m not shying away from it.
“I’m certainly not put off by it in terms of feeling sorry for myself. If anything, it’s the opposite.”
The opposite, in this case, is Dingwall as a test of nerve.
Hampden in sharp focus
Hibs have not reached a semi-final since November 2023, when they lost to Aberdeen in this same competition. Gray was on the coaching staff then, working under Nick Montgomery. He remembers the sting of that defeat and the sense of a chance missed.
So when he sat down with his players at the start of this season and laid out targets, Hampden wasn’t just mentioned. It was ringed in red.
“When we spoke about challenges and objectives at the start of the season, getting to Hampden was right at the very top of the list,” he said.
The route there now runs through the Highlands, and a Ross County side that looks nothing like a soft touch. Relegated from the Championship but still full-time, they have retained their core, kept their standards and started the League 1 campaign with purpose.
County are unbeaten in the league. Veteran striker Brian Graham has already scored nine times this season, one of those in a home draw with Dundee during the group stage of this competition. They are used to winning. They are used to scoring. They are used to imposing themselves.
“They’ve stayed full-time and kept their core together,” Gray said of the Highland club. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they found themselves back in the Premiership again with the infrastructure, players and management team they’ve got.
“They’ve started the season really well, they’re used to winning games and they’ll be playing with confidence. That adds to the challenge we’ve got.”
This is not the fixture you want when your own form is faltering and your fanbase is restless. But it is exactly the kind of fixture that can change a narrative in 90 minutes.
Blocking out the noise
Gray knows the soundtrack around Hibs at the moment: frustration, doubt, the familiar grumble that a club of this size should be doing more, and doing it faster. He has heard it before, as a player and a coach. He is determined it will not seep into his dressing room.
“If I allow the noise to affect what we’re doing or distract me in any way then you just go under in that situation,” he said. “I’ve been through adversity before and the focus is simply that we need to make sure we win.
“The form and everything else doesn’t matter this weekend. It’s about making sure everyone knows the job in hand, which is a real chance to get to Hampden.”
That is the line he is drawing. Forget the league form. Forget the Conference League disappointment. Forget the table, the talk-ins, the phone-ins. One game, one prize: a semi-final.
For a manager under pressure, this is both a risk and an opportunity. Knock out an unbeaten, confident Ross County side on their own patch and the season suddenly looks different. The path to Hampden opens up, the dressing room belief hardens, the criticism loses its edge.
Fail, and the questions turn sharper. Not about long-term structures or transition phases this time, but about whether a club that set Hampden as a top priority can handle the weight of its own ambition.
