Whilst Graham Arnold was also mentioned as a potential successor, the Socceroos coach will remain in situ with the national team, for whom he signed a new four year contract after last year’s World Cup.

Meanwhile Mariners miracle man Montgomery, off the back of steering Central Coast to the A-League Championship on a threadbare budget, has been quoted at 16/1 for the job, with former Celtic boss Neil Lennon the favourite.

Hibs, also home to Socceroos Martin Boyle and Lewis Miller, axed Johnson after losing their opening three league games of the season, and crashing 5-0 at home to Aston Villa in their Europa Conference League qualifier.

Speaking ahead of Saturday morning's dead-rubber return at Villa Park, Jeggo told FTBL: “Whenever a manager is sacked there’s always that reflection on what could have gone differently.

“As players, you can only really control your own performances and it’s important after any defeat or bad period you focus on how you’ve played and what you can do better going forward.

“We worked so hard last season to qualify for Europe and there were some early positives but our start to the season has been far from ideal.

“We all know that the three games we’ve had so far in the league, we should have done better, especially at home (losing to St Mirren and Livingston) and of course there’s that responsibility there for us to do better.

“The performances haven’t been good enough and that falls on everybody - we all our share of responsibility for that.

“But the way football works it often unfortunately comes down to the manager in terms of sackings and things like that.”

Jeggo is aware of Montgomery being linked with the post, and sees it as a sign of the rising awareness of what Australian coaches might offer.

Tottenham coach Ange Postecoglou already has legendary status in nearby Glasgow after his exploits with Celtic, and Jeggo isn’t surprised to see first Arnold then Montgomery, who represented Scotland at junior level, bracketed with the club.

“This just speaks volumes, not just in Scotland, but on a wider scale on how high the stock is for Australian coaches in general now,” he said.

“We have to wait and see which direction the club takes but there’s no doubt Australia is producing some excellent coaches who are getting noticed.”

Whoever takes the reins, Jeggo is convinced the Edinburgh club will halt the slide in the coming weeks.

“We have an interim manager right now and no doubt the club will soon appoint somebody on a permanent basis,” he added.

“I don’t think we’ve been a million miles off in the games from where we were last season, although there are certain aspects that have been lacking and we need to put that that right.

“Whatever way the club moves forward we need to make sure as players we come out of this as a better team. We’re doing everything we can to get ourselves back to where we should be.

“Things can change fast in football and I’m sure we can kick start things again.”

A silver lining for Hibs, says Jeggo, has been Boyle’s return from a long lay off.

“I’ve never seen somebody come back from so long off (with an ACL) and look so sharp so quickly and that’s a good omen for us,” he added.