Can Hibs recover from calamity in Kosovo?

How long does it take for pre-season optimism to disappear? For Hibernian, one game.

As head coach David Gray and captain Martin Boyle tried to make sense of their shocking defeat by Kosovan side FC Malisheva in the bowels of the Stadium Fadil Vokrri, Hibs fans were gathered outside.

You could hear the shouts of anger and demands for an apology from the irate travelling supporters as the rest of the squad headed for the team bus.

“You know what we put in for this club,” shouted one furious fan.

Gray was clear that such anger was justified and that there was “no excuse” for an abject showing.

It was undoubtedly one of the club’s worst standalone results, coming as it did against a side who had never won a European tie before last week and who were formed in 2016.

The stunning 2-0 win was the biggest result in Malisheva’s history, and their small band of supporters celebrated it wildly.

For Hibs, this result ranks alongside the first leg defeat by Andorran side Inter Club d’Escaldes in 2023 and the 7-0 home hammering by Malmo in 2013 for European misery.

So what went wrong? It had all the hallmarks of a classic Scottish club defeat in July qualifiers.

Unknown opposition. A pitch which, after the sprinklers were turned on after the warm up, turned into a back garden slip-and-slide. Calamitous moments. Errors compounded. A growing sense of dread.

Only striker Nathan Lowe made his debut from the start, so it was not as if Hibs were integrating a host of new players.

Gray was clear in his pre-match comments about what was coming. An aggressive and intense Malisheva side.

“I’m not going to have any sort of excuse,” Gray told BBC Scotland. “I’m not going to come up with any of that at all.

“Everything I thought the game would be today in terms of what the opposition would do – I thought happened.

“That aggressive intensity, the transition when they scored the second goal, especially when you look at how they broke on us, everything we thought it would be.

“The biggest part of it is the fact that we were way below the levels required.

“I’m not going to defend it. It’s my responsibility to fix it. That is a reflection of my team, which isn’t of the standards acceptable for the football club at any time.”

The Hibs fans who paid for at least two flights, a hotel, beer and the rest might struggle to see any positives right now.

Gray said the only one chink of light is they have a chance to fix it next week at Easter Road. Had Lowe taken his two good chances to level the game at 1-1, it might have been a different story.

Malisheva, for all their strength at home, have never won away from Kosovo in their three seasons in Europe. Vikingur put eight goals past them in Iceland last season.

This is largely the same Hibs team who did brilliantly in Europe last season.

They pushed Midtjylland, one of the best sides in the Europa League last term, to extra-time before dismissing Partizan Belgrade. They only lost to Polish giants Legia Warsaw in extra-time to miss out on the Conference League.

Three years ago after losing 2-1 to Inter Club d’Escaldes, Hibs smashed them 6-1 at Easter Road to progress anyway. So all is not lost, even if the mood is gloomy.

“To a man today, there’s not many that can put their hand up and say, we were where we needed to be,” Gray said.

“To win any game of football [you need], seven, eight, nine players all playing at the highest level they can play.

“If we can go and get that at home, which is now absolutely required, every single man to go and do that.

“The players are hurting in there right now. But that’s when you need to stick together and you need to take it on the chin and understand that there is an expectation, a demand when you come and play for this football club, and a responsibility to deliver.”