Left at the lowest ebb . . But Hibs captain is determined to lead struggling club to safety

IAN MURRAY today admitted he and his Easter Road team-mates will never be allowed to forget their humiliating Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Second Division part-timers Ayr United.

But the Hibs skipper urged Colin Calderwood's squad to avoid an even greater stigma, being forever associated with the embarrassment of relegation from the top flight.

Although he wasn't part of the Hibs side which took the drop in 1998, Murray joined the Easter Road groundstaff that summer and knows full well the trauma, the disappointment and the anger which surrounds such a fate.

Today Hibs sit tenth in the SPL table, just four points ahead of basement outfit Hamilton who have a game in hand, prompting Murray to insist anyone who tries to suggest Calderwood's side aren't involved in a battle against relegation is deluding themselves.

Revealing the 1-0 defeat at Somerset Park was the worst he'd ever felt, Murray made it clear he doesn't intend to suffer even further, declaring the determination of the entire playing staff to dig themselves out of the hole which they have put themselves into.

Although Hibs suffered the ignominy of being beaten by First Division Ross County in last season's Scottish Cup - although "The Staggies" went on to make the final, Murray argued circumstances today were much different. He said: "Last year the league kept us going, we still had a lot to play for in terms of Europe - now we have to keep ourselves in the league."

Murray believes finishing seventh or possibly even sixth, while falling well short of the ambitions harboured at the start of the season, could be seen as "a step up."

He said: "It's a relegation battle, there's no getting away from that. I don't think it's a lack of confidence, we are still taking the ball in important areas in midfield, the full-backs are pushing up the park trying to make things happen.

"But we are leaking goals, we seem to feel we will miss chances while other teams fancy their chances of scoring against us which gives them confidence."

While lifelong Hibs fans such as himself, Derek Riordan and Colin Nish might be expected to be hurting more than others, Murray claimed that wasn't the case, saying: "There's plenty of us in there and if there's maybe one or two that's more than made up by others who have come from other clubs.

"Guys like Kevin McBride and Liam Miller, I can say, are hurting. Hibs went out of the Cup, they were part of the team and can't change that, part of the 11 who went out to Ayr United. I'm not going to say that's embarrassing, that would be disrespectful to Ayr but it is not something you want on your CV.

"It was certainly the worst I have ever felt after a game, a mixture of stuff, disappointment and anger. The fact a new manager has come in and we have not shown him what we can do - and that was a great chance for us to get a morale-boosting win.

"We know it was not good enough. I've been in similar situations when we really could not get a win but we just don't seem to be able to get a win and we are on a terrible run."

Murray agreed, however, that Calderwood's players need to quickly improve results if they are to haul themselves away from the foot of the SPL table and soothe the frayed nerves of their supporters.

He said: "We have to get out of it, if come April we are sitting seventh or sixth it will be a step-up, not ideal, not where we wanted to be, but better."

And while some might look on the defeat by Ayr as a "wake-up call," Murray revealed the alarm bells began ringing for him long ago. He said: "I think that switch had already been pressed, if not, it certainly was after Ayr. Personally speaking, though, I felt it came when Aberdeen came to Easter Road and won 2-1 when they were bottom of the league. I thought we were in a bit of trouble and the manager isn't stupid, he probably knew it from day one when he came in here.

"We have to go now, we said over Christmas we had a couple of home games, the chance to get a run going but nothing materialised from that other than a point. We went to Tynecastle in the derby with people probably expecting us to get rolled over.

"We weren't but we were slaughtered for our style of play but that won't bother us or the manager, we will have to play exactly as we see fit to get ourselves out of this. People don't enjoy it, players don't enjoy it but it might have to be that way. If we have to kick the ball over the stand then we will kick the ball over the stand, it is as simple as that."

Emphasising that Calderwood has the full support of his players, describing him as "a breath of fresh air", Murray added: "No-one wants to be part of a squad or team that is relegated, it's something you can never get rid of, you will carry it for life, you will never be able to rub it out. But having said that, we still believe we are a good side and we can handle it.

"However, we can't say we should be sitting third or fourth in the league and while we don't feel we are too good to be relegated, we feel we are good enough to stay up."