Hibs boss Paul Heckingbottom hopes to change the mindset towards Old Firm

He is already imposing his winning philosophy on Hibs.

But Easter Road gaffer Paul Heckingbottom has challenged the entire Premiership to take a leaf out of his book when it comes to facing Celtic.

Hecky’s Hibees face the Hoops today, aiming to dump the title-chasers on their backsides.

Their never-say-die boss demands as much.

But he has detected a lack of belief amongst the wider Scottish football community when it comes to standing up to Celtic.

That’s something he won’t accept at Easter Road – and he wants rival clubs to take the fight to the Bhoys alongside him.

“Celtic are recruiting for players who can maybe take them to the group stages of the Champions League every year,” said Heckingbottom. “That’s a different market to the rest of us.

“But you can pay them too much respect, sit off them too much.

“I’ve heard it: ‘Ah, Celtic are the best team, they’ll win the league’, and barring Rangers, everyone sort of accepts that.

“That’s where I’d love to change that mentality, of everyone and every team.”

Heckingbottom has learned a lot about his squad in the nine weeks since succeeding Neil Lennon as Hibs boss.

He has also learned plenty about the Scottish game in general.

But a widespread attitude of deference towards Celtic – and from some quarters towards Rangers, too – is its most notable idiosyncrasy.

“Listen, Celtic should win it. But they should be really earning it and not have anyone roll over for them,” he continued.

“I’m not trying to do them a disservice when they win the league. I’m just someone coming up with fresh eyes.

“They’ve got good players and to keep the hunger – to do it year-on-year – is good.

“But come on, let’s everyone step up and give them a good fight, eh?

“You speak to people in the game, speak to media, speak to fans, as someone who’s come up into the league. And when you can play each other four times a year, there’s just this: ‘Aw, it’s Celtic again, we’re not taking points there’.

“It’s in people’s language. I get what they mean but there’s so many people saying it, that everyone starts to believe it.

“That’s been the biggest thing I’ve seen since I came up here, with Celtic in particular but also Rangers to a lesser extent.”

If any team ought to believe they can get some change out of the Hoops, it’s Hibs.

They claimed a 2-0 win over Celtic in December under Neil Lennon, who will today occupy the visitors’ dugout at Easter Road.

But whatever happens, benchmarking his team against the best in the country is something Heckingbottom wants to make the most of.

“The short-term goal when I came in was to get top six, regardless of how far away we were,” he said.

“There was a financial aspect to that – big crowds, big games, getting the derby, getting the Old Firm.

“But from a selfish point of view, I wanted to learn as much as I could about the players, the staff, how we work, the league, everything.

“To do that, we had to get top six to be able to make really good judgments and come away at the end of the season thinking: ‘Right, this is what we need and how we improve’.

”The recruitment is ongoing – you just talk about it more when a window opens.

“We’ll know where the gaps are in the squad that need improved.

“We might fill them with young players, we might renew guys who are out of contract or sign from other clubs – free agents, loan players.”

Still undefeated in the league under his charge, Hibs have been flying.

But Heckingbottom won’t let complacency creep in ahead of a summer he will use to put his stamp on his squad.

“Results paper over cracks sometimes,” he said.

“We won’t get carried away thinking we’re still undefeated in the league and everything’s great. We want to keep improving.

“We’ve been clear with the players why we think we’ve won games, and we’ve shown some really good qualities.

“But there are areas to improve and that needs hard work.”