WHEN Harry McKirdy was sold to Hibernian on deadline day last summer, there was a reluctant acceptance from everyone involved with Swindon Town.

The enigmatic striker had plundered 25 goals and provided 10 assists in fewer than 50 games for Town, and the League Two club was always going to struggle to keep hold of him.

But almost a full season after arriving in Edinburgh, McKirdy still hasn’t scored for Hibs – nor has he directly helped a teammate find the net either.

If you believe the social-media meltdown attached to his name, McKirdy is not good enough to wear the famous green shirt and should return to the lower leagues of England immediately.

However, according to the Edinburgh Evening News’ dedicated Hibs reporter, Patrick McPartlin, there are plenty of reasons to keep hold of McKirdy and he would not rush to send the striker packing just yet.

Assessing the 26-year-old’s debut year at Hibs, McPartlin said: “‘Stop-start’ would be the closest cliched term which would sum up his first season.

“He had a couple of injuries shortly after he joined, and there were a couple of social-media faux pas too. But it does take time to adjust to a move.

“He was mostly moved off the bench, and even in the games he did start, he did look like he had something. He’s quite unpredictable, and he did hit the woodwork or he went close a few times.

“But it was disappointing for the club and for him. I don’t think it was down to a lack of effort on his part, it just didn’t happen for him. I don’t know if he’s like most forwards where once they get one, that’s it.”

Before any hopes of a move back to Swindon are raised, McPartlin suggested Hibs are keen to keep hold of their man and hope McKirdy kicks on in 23/24.

Lee Johnson’s men have been relatively active in the transfer market so far this summer, signing Adam Le Fondre after selling Kevin Nisbet to Millwall.

The hope is – from McPartlin’s point of view at least – that whoever Hibs bring in, McKirdy will be played more centrally next term which may allow the striker to land his debut goal sooner rather than later.

He said: “In terms of his stats, and as far as strikers go, there haven’t been too many strikers at Hibs in the past few years who have gone so long without anything.

“The difference with him is, there have been other players where you’ve thought: “they don’t have the ability or the mentality to affect games”, but Harry has always threatened to do something.

“There have been four or five games where he’s had moments or shots which would have gone in if they were inches one way or the other. He just needs one to go in off his shins or something like that.”