Hibernian manager David Gray was thrilled to see his team play with confidence as they cruised to a 3-0 victory over Motherwell.
Hibs have endured a troubled campaign frequently hampered by an inability to see games out, but they did not look back at Fir Park following first-half goals from Junior Hoilett and Mykola Kukharevych.
While Gray admitted there was an element of relief when substitute Josh Campbell confirmed victory with a late third, the composure and belief exhibited throughout suggested to the Easter Road boss that his team may have turned their fortunes around.
After moving above city rivals Hearts and into 11th place in the William Hill Premiership, Gray said: “I’m delighted for the players for the effort, the level of professionalism, how strong we looked.
“We fully deserved the three points. I think you’ve seen a side that played with a lot of confidence and belief in themselves.
“The clean sheet really helps with that. We’re now not sitting here talking about individual errors, decision-making within the game or mentality.
“When we keep 11 players on the pitch, we’re a real good side and we demonstrated that.”
Gray was given a vote of confidence from the Hibernian board during the international break a fortnight ago.
They have since lost 4-1 to Dundee and survived a 3-3 thriller with Aberdeen thanks to a stoppage-time equaliser on Tuesday.
Gray said: “I’ve said for a number of weeks, during the difficult periods, that I fully believe in the squad and fully believe I can turn this around.
“I always understood exactly why questions are going to be asked and still continue to be asked of me.
“I know where we find ourselves and one result doesn’t change the season.
“But I challenged the player to use Tuesday as the turning point in the season and take the confidence from that.
“It’s amazing, the feeling of momentum shifting with a goal in a positive way against Aberdeen – because too many times we’ve been on the receiving end.
“That made us positive going into this game and I thought it was a really good team performance.”
Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell admitted to feeling “real anger” at almost every aspect of his side’s unusually subdued display.
He said: “Playing at home, we’ve never been in that position of being 3-0 down, totally out of the game and having no spark to get back into it.
“We lacked quality at the top end, lacked quality in midfield and we conceded the most ridiculous goals.
“That becomes a recipe for disaster in a match. We’ve conceded five goals in the last two games that have been amateurish. We must do the basics better.”
