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David Gray answers Hibs critics with Rangers and Euro wins but I'm still not convinced – Tam McManus It's been a productive fortnight for the Hibees but Tam reckons they are still a tough watch and capable of much more. Two weeks ago in this very column I said that David Gray was facing a defining moment as Hibs manager. An embarrassing Conference League qualifying defeat away to Kosovan minnows FC Malisheva had left his side on the brink of catastrophe. Thankfully, and not for the first time in his managerial career, Gray produced a response that sums up the man’s resilience. Malisheva thumped on home turf, further Euro progress secured after squeezing through against Shkendija to stand on the brink of an historic first ever group stage - and in between all that another victory over Rangers at Ibrox. A third in three successive seasons. Gray’s come through that period of pressure where the spotlight was on him with big results. Yet, harsh as it may sound, I’m still not convinced. Why? I’ll be honest, Hibs are a hard watch at the minute. A very hard watch. I get that in football results are the be all and end all. But the performances need to be better and I'm not convinced the fans are delighted with what they've seen. Even in the win against Rangers, I didn't think Hibs were great. They got fortunate with the penalty kick - but you’ll take it because how often can you say that at Ibrox? They took their chances and got a great result which is the main thing. But Hibs are going to have to play a hell of a lot better over two legs to beat Gent if they are to grab that chance of writing their names in the history books. I don't think they've really shown what they can be. Nowhere near it. Decent money has been spent on the squad and there's a lot of quality players there. But there's something missing, a cohesiveness, a style. They're just grinding out results when they should be exciting the fans with the quality of attacking players at their disposal. I look at Motherwell, even Hearts at times, and I see a clear pattern of playing. Great attacking football and individual skill in the final third, particularly from Well. Then I look at Hibs and there's a spark missing. I get that they ground out a great result away to Rangers, and you’ve got to be happy with that. Then they battle to a nil-nil away from home to get through in Europe. It's hot, it's sticky, the park's awful. You progress, job done. And maybe it’s a positive that they are winning when there’s still levels to go up and key men like Jamie McGrath just coming back from injury. Certainly, three years in a row winning at Ibrox is a great achievement. A lot of Hibs managers in the past have been accused of not winning the big games. Jack Ross got that aimed at him for a long time. The big games for Hibs are against Celtic, Rangers, Hearts. If you're winning them, the fans love it. And Gray has got quite a few under his belt now. But it needs to be better. If you're consistently putting in average performances it’ll eventually catch up with you. I said this so many times last season - Hibs were underachieving with the talent in their squad. They finished fifth and never made a dent in the cups. It wasn’t good enough. And that can’t be the case this year. Which brings me to tomorrow’s League Cup tie against Partick Thistle in Leith. Forget next week’s trip to Ghent for the time being. This is huge. Thistle is a hard game. Gray will be well aware of that. They are off to a flier again in the Championship and Mark Wilson has them playing some good stuff. I believe they are bringing a big support through to Easter Road aswell. Hibs have the added problem of flying back from North Macedonia in the last 24 hours after playing in a sweat box and there’s no doubt you can still feel it in your legs less than three days later. But nothing other than progression will be acceptable for Hibs fans. Harsh as it sounds the jury is always out on Easter Road managers and Gray is no different, club legend or not. But if he can get a cup run to Hampden and qualify for the main phase of the Conference League then he will be well on the way to answering the critics again.