LEWIS Stevenson admits he spent last week’s entire bus journey from Aberdeen trying to avoid eye contact with his manager Neil Lennon.
Lennon let rip with a ferocious post-match rant at his players inside the Pittodrie dressing room after seeing his Hibernian team collapse to a 4-1 defeat.
And long-serving full-back Stevenson insists the former Celtic manager was just as angry during the 130-mile trip back to the capital because he watched a re-run of the game on his lap-top.
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Stevenson knows there will be no hiding place for the team when they bid to make amends against Ross County this afternoon, but concedes he did his best to avoid Lennon’s attention on the bus.
He said: “The manager said he was hard on us but, frankly, we deserved it, it was our poorest performance since he has been manager and I had that suspicion walking in after the game that there would be a backlash, even at half-time - which we got.
“You can tell by the performance, we did deserve a bit of a rollicking and we got it.
“He was pretty much seething, it’s happened in football a lot and with every manager that’s been here.
“The trip back home was tough too. He was watching the game again and he had that angry look when he’s watching it, quite rightly because it was our poorest performance.
“He was watching it on a laptop and I’m not that far from him, I was slumping down as far as possible on my seat to try and stay out of eye contact.
“But he’s a passionate man and passionate about his job, he loves his team to bits and wants us to do well.
“It’s the mark of a great manager, you would rather that than somebody who didn’t care and went home on the bus and listened to music.
“We don’t want to put in performances like that, we know the time and money spent, especially going up there.
“Our performance was terrible and I don’t think anyone got pass marks.”
As things stand, Lennon has given his players two days off following the County match, despite a trip to fierce rivals Hearts looming on Wednesday.
Stevenson is planning to make the most of a rare Christmas Day off with the family, including son Louis and daughter Luna.
He added: “Sometimes you need a bit of rest and recuperation. And seeing each other ten days’ straight, you sometimes need a break from the boys, as well.
“There’s only so much John McGinn you can take.”
And speaking about McGinn, Ross County manager Owen Coyle came close to signing the midfielder when working in the United States.
But the then-Houston Dynamo manager believes he would have risked stunting the rising star’s recent stunning progress by becoming embroiled in a FIFA battle with St Mirren.
Coyle recalled: “I had agreed a deal to sign John at Houston but St Mirren weren’t allowing him to go.
“Because it was outside the European market, he would have been a free agent, but what would have happened is St Mirren were prepared to appeal to the ruling bodies.
“I didn’t want the boy sitting in limbo for six to nine months as it would have been detrimental to his career – and we have all seen his progression since.
“I hope he doesn’t do well on Saturday but it’s fantastic to see how well he has done.
“We saw how good he was when he came out to America. He’s got a bit of everything. Coming from a good footballing family, he’s someone I’ve got a lot of time for.
“It’s no mean feat to go toe-to-toe with Scott Brown, particularly the form he’s in.”