Colin Calderwood's woes extend beyond the playing field

When a manager starts talking about a "spinning wheel of mistakes, the full repertoire rotating around the players" then you know that he's in a pretty grim place.

That was Colin Calderwood speaking in the wake of this comprehensive beating, yet another bad day for the Easter Road team who are in a circle of decline at present.

It came at the end of a week of frustration in the transfer market for the manager. Calderwood thought he had some deals lined-up only to see them fail. There's lot of failure around here at the moment. Referring to Hibs' next challenge, at Ayr in a Scottish Cup replay on Tuesday, he put it up to the players to prove they are men enough to deal with such a job.

"We need a win," he said. "We're expecting a catalogue of people looking for an upset (meaning the media] and it's going to be a real test, mentally and physically. I thought we were going to have a couple of additions to the squad but for various reasons everything broke down.

"It's been a catalogue of woe," he said. "One or two (deals] might get re-ignited, but we need somebody here who is accustomed to a fight and who is ready for it. I doubt we're going to get the ready-made package, but I would like it to be somebody from the British Isles so there's little settling-in period."

Asked if he felt his players were losing the will to scrap, especially the 15 out of contract in the summer and who might be restless, he said no, lack of effort is not the problem. "That's the furthest thing from the truth. There's real integrity and honesty, whether it's the players who have four or five months left on their contract or two or three years. That's the smallest problem we have."

Neil Lennon offered support to his former manager at Nottingham Forest. "He's got a difficult job on his hands," said Lennon, "but if you look at his record, it's good. At Northampton, he took them up. At Forest, he took them up. At Newcastle, he took them up (as assistant manager). He's a good man to have at the helm."