Nick Montgomery pleased with Hibs progress after three months in charge

Nick Montgomery has reflected on his three months in charge of Hibs so far, saying the team has made progress but there is more to come.

The Englishman moved from Central Coast Mariners to take charge at Easter Road following the sacking of Lee Johnston, with the team sitting tenth in the Premiership table when he arrived.

Hibs have since climbed up to fourth in the league, with only three defeats in fifteen games and four wins from their last five matches.

Montgomery sees a real difference over that spell and thinks the team could take another step forward when he has players back from injury.

“I’m really pleased with the progress,” he said. “When you look at my time in charge there’s definitely been a lot of improvement in the team.

“I’ve definitely given everyone opportunities to play and at the minute we still have a lot of players out that have been out for a long time. I’m looking forward to having them back in the new year.

“But I’m happy with the progress that we’re making and we’ve got a lot of improvements to make as well. That’s why we work hard every day on the training ground to try and improve every aspect of our game.”

There could be a major change off the park if Bournemouth and Lorient owner Bill Foley completes his investment in the club. The billionaire, who has recently bought a licence to start an A-League side in Australia, sees Easter Road as part of a “pathway” to move talented players through, joining Hibs up with the rest of his global network.

Montgomery won’t let thoughts of how that could help his plans affect his work just yet, saying that he is concentrating on the job at hand and not what it could be.

“That stuff is above my remit,” he said. “I just concentrate on the team and trying to win games of football.

“Other than that, there’s not been any update other than the stuff in the media and I don’t really need to know. Hopefully things go well on that front.

“It’s always positive for any manager or club to hear about investment. Again, there’s a lot of talk about it but until things are confirmed it’s the same day-to-day business and my focus is purely on St Johnstone.”

Montgomery has faced every Premiership team but Motherwell since arriving at the club but expects St Johnstone to be a changed outfit under new manager Craig Levein when the teams meet this weekend.

“Craig’s an experienced manager,” he said. “He’s come in and you can see they are well-organised, disciplined.

“He’s had a good input into the team and they’ve had some good performances.

“I’m expecting a competitive game. They’re a physical team and you can see the effort they’ve put in since Craig has been there.

“You can see they are all committed and it’ll be a difficult game. We know exactly what we’re going to be facing.”