Lee Johnson insists he doesn’t fear the sack at Hibs despite pressure growing among frustrated supporters.
The Easter Road side have slipped from third to eighth on the back of a horror run that’s seen them lose seven of their last eight Premiership matches.
Trigger-happy owner Ron Gordon sacked Jack Ross and Shaun Maloney in the last 12 months before appointing Johnson in May.
But the former Sunderland boss insists his side are close to turning the tide and reckons they’ve been on the wrong end of too many errors from officials - the latest being a handball call against Rangers at Ibrox last week.
Johnson is adamant Hibs should have been awarded a penalty when the ball struck James Sands’ arm with the Leith side 2-1 up before going on to lose 3-2.
That made it four defeats on the spin.
But ahead of this afternoon’s home clash with Livingston, Johnson vowed to stick to his beliefs and insists he has the support of Gordon and chief executive Ben Kensell.
He said: “I don’t fear the worst. I love this club, I think it’s a great club with great potential.
“But if you were writing an epitaph, it would be ‘you need time’.
“We can get it right but you can’t keep doing it if you keep changing things all the time.
“You need stability, people need emotional stability, so do the staff. Fans need it.
“You have so many managers and players through the door, that’s one thing.
“So many systems and processes that need set up, that’s massive. We have to do that.
“We have to make sure our transfer windows are better than they have been.
“We know that. You can point fingers at me or Ian (Gordon, recruitment chief) or Ben or anyone else.
“But you have got a group of key decision makers at this football club who are desperate to do very, very well for everybody as well as ourselves.
“I could write you a book on what’s wrong and how to correct it and we are, step by step.
“And if we had 4-6 more points, which I think we should, the noise wouldn’t be there.
“So I just hope that turns based on the law of averages, making your own luck, getting decisions that go against you.
“And if it doesn't then I have still done the right thing for the football club to make it better in the future.
“Then everybody goes: ‘You know what? It was a difficult one, but he’s done everything there, and look at the success they are having based on that chunk of work done in that period of time.
Johnson was fired from his last job at Sunderland after a 6-0 defeat to Bolton - despite the Black Cats sitting third in League One and just a point off the promotion spots.
He was one of four manager departures in as many years at the Stadium of Light. But he’s confident he retains the backing of his paymasters at Easter Road.
He said: “I think so. I have great communication with Ron, Ben and Ian.
“We have robust conversations, it’s not nicey-nicey, don’t get me wrong.
“This is both ways, we are very strong on what we believe needs to be done.
“I’m definitely strong on that, make no mistake how front footed I am with trying to drive the club forward.
“But it does take time. Money needs to be allocated to certain areas of the business.
“Allocation from previous manager has been used in different ways, naturally.
“So to get everything channelled towards the way I want to work to be successful sustainably over a period of time all your ducks have to be in a row.
“And they’re not at the moment.
“But we’re trying to do that and we have done that in this spell we have had off from games.”
Johnson is adamant his side should have had a penalty at the key moment at Ibrox last week before Rangers hit back to take the points.
He said: “If we are all honest, there has been some bad luck, like the penalty decision we didn’t get at Ibrox. It’s now been confirmed that it should have been a penalty. It’s disappointing, but you hope they even themselves out over the season.
“It becomes really frustrating, because you’re desperate for it, aren’t you?
“You want it badly, the players want it badly.
“And you get in a position where you have earned the opportunity if the officials do their job correctly, and they haven’t for whatever reason.
“I am not blaming them, it could be the process, it could be the speed of it.
“But it’s a penalty, it’s as simple as that.
“Listen, we might not have scored the penalty, we might have and Rangers might have scored three.
“It doesn’t guarantee you the points but it gives you a damn sight more of an opportunity to get them.
“Then decisions get made slightly differently.
“That’s what we brought VAR in for, to counter act that injustice.
“It’s teething problems but they have probably affected us more than anyone.”
