By John Greechan

Copyright scotsman

Hibs boss David Gray returns to Falkirk Stadium tomorrow night seeking to bury memories of an all-time career low. A nadir quickly followed by a high that would take some topping, to be fair. But a painful blow, all the same. Gray, who has solid professional reasons for wanting his team to rediscover their defensive miserliness and attacking thrust they look to pick up three vital Scottish Premiership points in a fixture rearranged to give the Easter Road club a little helping hand in European competition, laughs as he recalls a late Kris Commons winner the last time Hibs visited Falkirk on league business. If there was plenty to smile about after a 2-1 away win on Hogmanay, 2016, the same couldn’t be said of absolutely every visit to play the Bairns. “Yep,” said Gray, when recalling the late Commons strike, the former fullback adding: “In fact I was in the wall and he nearly took my head off! It’s one of them when you’re standing and he aims for you, and then you move out of the way – and then it flew into the net late on. “That season the four games were always never more a goal between us. That was a period obviously we found ourselves in the Championship for a few seasons and Falkirk were always one of the big rivals every season, was always difficult games. “There were a lot of moments even in the season before (2015-16). If you remember, they were the team that put us out of the playoffs before we went on to win the Scottish Cup. “That was probably one of the lowest points of my career, that night. I remember being there after the game – I think we lost the goal from a long throw right at the very end of the game. “We then had to pick ourselves up with the Scottish Cup being, whatever it was, a week later. Definitely the motivation was to make sure that it was not a nearly season because they put us out of the playoff and ended our opportunity to get promoted that year. So, yeah, Falkirk is always difficult place to go …” Of immediate concern to Gray is tackling his team’s tendency to concede goals immediately before and after half-time. Part of a wider concern over losing too many goals, in general. “Yeah, we’ve looked at that; it would be naive of me not to look at it when the stats are there for everyone to see,” he said, adding: ““You can find a stat to prove any point you want to make in certain situations. But we’re not shying away from the fact that just before half-time we’ve conceded a few goals – and just after as well. “It’s not a fitness thing because we’ve gone right to the very end in games, we’ve gone 120 minutes three times this season. So it’s certainly not a fitness thing. “But I have addressed it with the players because it would be naive not to, just hoping it goes away. So we’re looking at that and I’ll go back to what I said after the game at the weekend. “Obviously goals change games, moments, big moments in games and I’d be much more concerned if we weren’t creating the chances we were. We need to be more clinical in the moments because then that completely changes the game as I’ve just touched on. If it goes 1-1 at the weekend with Boyle’s chance or Boyle’s goal doesn’t come off his arm slightly or whatever and we go 1-0 up, that game’s very different. “You need your game plan to address the issues as you’re approaching half-time. But don’t want it to become a thing that players are worried about and overthinking it, because then start to do things that they shouldn’t. “The timing of the game shouldn’t really matter. You should always be trying to manage the game in the certain situations anyway so it is a case of not shying away from it but making sure that the players are understanding what we are doing on the positive side as well. “Yeah we’ve conceded more goals than we’d like. When you look at the goals in isolation, there’s been a couple of late that are more frustrating than others. “Do I think we’ve conceded too many goals? Yes. Is there a massive issue with what we’re doing at the moment? I don’t believe there is. “I think there are areas we need to work on and I have highlighted that we are aware of that. I do think that if we’re more clinical at the other end as well it definitely helps because it changes the game. “So I think it’s all a work in progress. We’re not by any means the finished article, we’re always needing to improve – and that’s a challenge all the time, to make sure you keep doing that.” Your next Hibs read: ‘Rising expectations’ addressed in manager’s talk with players