Another late blow lays bare Gray's 'bigger problem'

Our hopes of overtaking Motherwell in fourth were dealt what might be a fatal blow with Dundee's equaliser – the latest in a long line of late goals that have blighted Hibs season.

It wasn't far off Hibs' strongest 11 on Saturday. Arguments could be made for Grant Hanley and Josh Mulligan's inclusion but it will be rare David Gray has so many of his first team available for selection.

The mantra from Gray has been about Hibs being the "best version of ourselves". The consensus among the fans is we see that best version far too little and that, as much as the late goals issue, is what has ultimately undone our season.

We are a very capable team on our day. You only have to go back just over a week to see Hibs beating champions Celtic in their own backyard. We've beaten the league leaders this season and come close against Rangers and Motherwell too.

At our best, we're easy on the eye, attacking, dynamic, and able to control games comfortably. The issue is we don't have to be at our worst to be none of those things.

Saturday was a case in point – not a dreadful performance overall, a very poor first half was salvaged by a much better second half before we switched off for the final crucial kick of the game.

Dundee were able to cause us far more problems than they should given the collective strength of the squads, and I mean no disrespect with that statement.

Dundee are a team that contain Hibs men of yesteryear – neither Drey Wright nor Simon Murray were considered good enough to remain at the club, yet they had a very comfortable first 45 minutes before we eventually got a grip of the game.

This is a huge concern for Gray – people will point to the late goals as the habit he needs to break, but really the bigger problem is we very rarely find ourselves in the position where those late goals are meaningless consolations.

Getting a consistency of good performance and capitalising when we're on top is key to turning these games into wins.

And if Gray can't get there with the very good squad he has, then the noise around his long-term future will continue to grow, however harsh that feels to me.

You can find Matty Fairnie at Longbangers podcast