James Collins thinks that new manager Terry Butcher has already instilled a "never say die" mentality at Hibs in the short time he has been at Easter Road. Collins scored a precious equaliser with nearly the last kick of the game against Partick Thistle on Saturday and acknowledged that under previous manager Pat Fenlon there was every chance the Hibees would have surrendered all three points following Kris Doolan's opener for the visitors. However, Hibs showed the requisite spirit and determination to rescue a draw in the additional time added on, with Collins scoring his first goal since 21 September from close range.He said: "Sometimes things have to change, and things have changed here. The new mentality is a never say die attitude. Saturday was a good way to show our character. We would possibly have lost that game in the past. Their keeper (Scott Fox) pulled off a couple of great saves earlier in the game and then we had the setback of conceding the goal. But our mentality now is that we will keep plugging away and thankfully we finally got the ball over the line in the 92nd minute, so it's a good point all round. Hopefully I can go on a run now and get a couple more. Strikers live and die on their goal record and if you are finding the net regularly then that is a great confidence boost."Meanwhile, Doolan admits Collins goal took the shine of scoring one of the finest goals of his career. Doolan opened the scoring in scintillating fashion, picking the ball up just inside the Hibs half, dancing past challenges from Jordon Forster and Paul Hanlon before delicately chipping the ball over Ben Williams. It looked as if Thistle's work had been done by the time Doolan was substituted in the 90th minute to secure the Jags first Premiership win since 20 October. However, Doolan had to watch helplessly as Collins rescued a point for the hosts. Doolan said: "It was right up there with the best I have ever scored. I think when it comes from so far out - I was near the halfway line when I picked it up - then it has to go up there with my favourites. As a striker you want to be scoring goals and that breeds confidence. Hopefully that spreads through the team and we take the positives from Saturday. But the late equaliser does put a bit of a dampener on it. It is hard to take, but we will try to learn from it and be encouraged by the fact that over the 90 minutes we probably deserved to win the game. I thought we defended really well throughout, but we've just been hit by a sucker-punch at the end."
Source: ScottishFitba
Source: FOOTYMAD
