Europe, mid-table or bottom-six - any outcome seems possible for unpredictable Hibs

The illogical quirks of football have conspired to leave Hibs at a low ebb in the wake of the latest Edinburgh derby.

This barmy sport - full of wild, hard-to-fathom fluctuations - will never cease in its quest to dumbfound those who immerse themselves in it.

One week everything is great and all seems possible; the next everything is hopeless and everyone involved gets it in the neck. The mood surrounding any club at any given time is invariably dictated by the outcome of the most recent match.

Right now, Hibs are engulfed by the gloom that comes with an unforeseen derby capitulation against a side most other teams in the league have been beating. Jack Ross and his players are in the line of fire from affronted supporters in a scene few could have envisaged unfolding in the weeks leading up to last night’s match.

A fortnight ago, after backing up a 3-0 win at home to Ross County with an equally impressive 2-1 victory away to Kilmarnock, Hibs looked to be in the ascendancy in their unlikely quest to finish third in the Premiership. Aberdeen and Motherwell were toiling and there looked a clear opportunity for Jack Ross’s free-scoring, upwardly-mobile side to motor up the blindside in the battle for Europe.

While that remains possible mathematically, it now looks far less likely after a couple of home games against Livingston and Hearts which have yielded only one point, two disappointing performances and an outbreak of anger not seen since Paul Heckingbottom was in charge. Hibs are five points behind third-place Motherwell and four behind Aberdeen, with both of these teams due to play their games in hand this evening.

The priority now for Hibs is to ensure they rediscover their poise in the coming weeks in order to ensure they see out the season in the top six. While Ross’s sixth-place side currently have a five-point cushion over Kilmarnock and St Johnstone, the former have one game in hand and the latter have two.

There are no easy points to be had in Hibs’ final four pre-split fixtures: Aberdeen away, St Johnstone home, Hamilton Accies away and Celtic home. As well as travelling to Easter Road, where they tend to do well, St Johnstone must face both sides of the Old Firm but they also have matches against St Mirren, Livingston and Hamilton in which they will hope to collect a decent points haul. Tommy Wright’s improving side, despite the five-point deficit, know that top-six qualification is still in their own hands by virtue of their games in hand and the fact they still have to face Hibs.

As previously alluded to, however, there is little point in trying to predict how things will pan out in each of these pre-split fixtures as no team in the Scottish Premiership outwith Celtic appears able to maintain any kind of logical, semi-consistent form line this season. Hibs fans’ exasperation today is exacerbated by the fact so few people expected them to lose last night’s derby.

They had been winning games fairly regularly and scoring more goals than most other sides in the league. Hearts, by contrast, went into the match at the foot of the table and with a defence which, given the number of goals they had been conceding, looked like it might struggle against Hibs’ array of attackers.

When the team lines were released at 6.30pm, Hibs certainly appeared to have the upper hand on paper. Indeed some mused pre-match that the team selected was the strongest XI Ross had at his disposal, with many supporters excited by the prospect of seeing Stephane Omeonga, Greg Docherty and Scott Allan working together in central midfield. By contrast, the Hearts side featured six players - Zdenek Zlamal, Clevid Dikamona, Oliver Bozanic, Sean Clare, Loic Damour and Lewis Moore - many of their supporters would have happily seen the back of not so long ago, while their influential captain Steven Naismith was surprisingly dropped to the substitutes’ bench.

Yet by the end of the 90 minutes, Hearts had romped to one of the most emphatic away wins the Edinburgh derby has witnessed over the past decade, making a mockery of the teams’ respective league positions. Daniel Stendel’s side expertly nullified the Hibs attack, stifled their midfield and exposed the ongoing vulnerability at the back.

In a little over 48 hours, Hibs fans have gone from salivating at the prospect of a Hampden revenge mission against their beleaguered city rivals in next month’s Scottish Cup semi-final to suddenly dreading the possibility of another demoralising beating at the hands of a Hearts side who, no matter how bad things get, invariably rise to the Edinburgh derby challenge. In similarly quick time, the likes of Marc McNulty and Omeonga have gone from exciting January signings to derby duds in the eyes of many supporters. Nothing is permanent, especially in football where the narrative changes game to game.

The vibe around Hibs in the build-up to the rematch in Mount Florida in five and a half weeks will be heavily influenced by whether their team have re-established themselves in the race for Europe or are drifting along aimlessly in mid-table or - worse still - the bottom six. Saturday’s trip to Aberdeen is likely to go a long way to establishing if Hibs will spend the next few weeks looking up or down.