The education of Owen Elding: Hibs’ young star is fast learning the way of elite football

There was a moment 10 minutes before half-time in last Sunday’s Hibs-Hearts head-spin of an Edinburgh derby, when Owen Elding received possession on the left side of Hearts’ half and ran forward.

By that stage Elding’s Hibs were already one man down – goalkeeper Raphael Sallinger, having been dismissed for handling outside his area. And that was a long half-hour ago.

Hibs, though, were one goal up. It had come after just six minutes and, as Dan Gray of the Scottish football quarterly Nutmeg put it, the reaction inside Easter Road was so loud and vast it was “like sitting beneath an aeroplane”.

This was definitely an atmosphere, exhilarating and intimidating. That was just in the stands. Down on the pitch, Hibs had their goal advantage, but they also had this numerical disadvantage and adrenaline can carry a team only so far.

With Hearts dominant territorially, Elding taking the ball towards their defence was as rare as it was bold. It was as if the entire ground zoomed in on him, wondering intently what he could do and how he could do it, because suddenly Elding was separated from his breathless team-mates.

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The packed main stand at Easter Road, which included Elding’s family, loomed above and, to repeat, suddenly young Owen looked isolated. He may well have felt that way because, rapidly, no fewer than four Hearts players appeared like angry doormen. They got around Elding, ensuring he would go no further. Soon they had patted him down and taken the ball. From green to maroon, back came Hearts. It was non-stop. Elding had no chance.

He has had a flying start to life in Scotland since switching Sligo Rovers for Hibernian at the end of January. Elding turned 20 five weeks after the move across the water, something worth remembering in moments like this.

He was the youngest player on the pitch on Sunday, which we should not forget either. By the end of an intense, title-influencing derby that was nothing like friendly, each team had used five substitutes and still Elding retained this status. Thirty-two players used and he was the youngest.

Elding made his Hibs debut as a teenager and it was against Rangers. His last home game for Sligo was against Cork City and facing Cork’s travelling fan base, with all due respect, is not the same as encountering Rangers’. But just about everyone at Hibs from manager David Gray to Elding himself has commented on how easily the player has settled.

Scoring as he did after 13 seconds against Kilmarnock helps, so too Elding’s first Hibs goal against St Mirren. It was only his second appearance. An hour at Celtic was followed by the opening goal at Dundee. In his first four weeks Elding had played in four Scottish Premiership matches and scored twice. The initial €600,000 or so Hibs have paid Sligo is well spent, and there’s already talk in Edinburgh about clubs higher up the transfer market food chain willing to multiply that figure by 10 and more.

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“Owen’s grow­ing in con­fid­ence all the time. For such a young player, he’s adap­ted really quickly. He’s a really mature player for his age. His tech­nical abil­ity speaks for itself.” These are Gray’s opinions.

There was a previous occasion in Sunday’s game – which Elding would depart early and Hibs would lose late, dramatically – when he accepted possession with his back to goal, retained the ball under pressure on the touchline, cut inside and found a team-mate. Hibs were temporarily released and Gray’s “mature” description immediately came to mind.

It is a compliment because in a maelstrom of a match in which Hibs were reduced to nine men after only 48 minutes, Elding was taken off two minutes later. It was not a comment on his work.

Hearts still trailed at that stage but found an equaliser 15 minutes later and a winner four minutes from the end. There was no consolation for Elding of being part of the most consequential Edinburgh derby for years, but when he and those around him step back, Sunday will be seen as all part of an education.

As those in Sligo can confirm, Elding has a natural’s touch; the game comes to him. It’s differing experiences that will develop his ability.

Born in England, raised in Ireland, playing in Scotland – the FAI is eager to get him registered. It makes sense, with the English FA said to be monitoring his passport situation. He was the League of Ireland’s young player of the year last season and wants to wear the green jersey. “I’m ready,” he says. A naturalisation ceremony in Kerry a few weeks ago was cancelled and will now take place in the summer. Heimir Hallgrímsson is on top of it.

But departing the sunshine of Leith last Sunday night, the local police still dealing with gangs of would-be feuding tracksuits, what came to mind was how afternoons like this are maybe a necessity for hyped young players – and for all of us who run away with the hype.

Here was a reminder of just how difficult it is to make it as a professional footballer, to rise from a first contract and all it promises through levels above. To call the competition fierce – from the other 31 individuals on the pitch last Sunday, for example – underplays it.

This Sunday, Hibs and Elding are back in title-shaping action. They host Celtic. Elding will see Martin O’Neill in the away dugout.

O’Neill was once the 19-year-old leaving Ireland for Britain and what he hoped would be a big career. O’Neill, too, hit the ground running, scoring on his debut for Nottingham Forest.

But he then discovered it’s not always so dreamy. Not long after, he ran into Johnny Giles’s Leeds United and even more than half a century later O’Neill could recall the reality check. “Johnny Giles was obviously a really great footballer and in 1971-72, my first season in England, Leeds United were outstanding. Giles, Billy Bremner, Peter Lorimer, Norman Hunter – you were in awe of them. Even when I’d scored a couple of goals for Forest, played a few games, that standard seemed so far away.”

Hearts 2025-26 are not Leeds 1971-72. Nor are Celtic. The standard in modern Scotland is not on a far horizon. Yet O’Neill’s point stands: a young Irishman in a different land, in a different league, can feel it.

But Elding has the capacity to disconcert Celtic and, if he does, the most compelling Scottish title race in decades will know about it. Presumably he has been familiarised with Hibs’ one-word club motto: Persevere.

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