Hibs defender Michael Nelson believes that the team was unlucky not to take at least a point from Parkhead on Saturday against champions Celtic.
The big Englishman made his first start for Hibs under Terry Butcher, having been side-lined following a bad facial injury sustained when Celtic visited Easter Road in October. His inclusion meant that Jordon Forster moved from central defence to right back with Alan Maybury taking a seat on the bench.
Speaking after the game, the former Kilmarnock and Bradford City stopper told Hibernian TV: “It was a tough game. They had a lot of possession first half but we probably limited them to just a few chances and were unfortunate to concede the goal the way we did.
“We stepped it up a bit second half and pushed James (Collins) and Danny (Handling) up a bit higher and went after them.
“We managed to defend quite well second half and also cause them problems. Liam hit the post and Paul Cairney nearly put in the rebound so we feel a little bit hard done by as we felt we could have taken something out of the game.
“You’re never happy when you get beat regardless of who you are playing but there are ways to get beat and we can take the positives out of it,
“We limited them to shots from distance with a couple of deflections and Ben’s managed to do well and make a couple of saves but they haven’t managed to cut us open apart from the goal,
“We managed to put them under pressure and created a couple of chances and it tells that in the last ten minutes they put the ball into the channel and keep it in the corner and there won’t be too many teams come here and do that.”
Nelson came through the game with no ill effects from his injury which required him to wear a mask, earning the nickname ‘Phantom’ from his team-mates. He added: “It was fine; it was just a case of coming in and starting off from where I left off. I played in the Under 20 game on Tuesday night and managed to get 90 minutes in.”
Photo by John Preece
http://www.photoboxgallery.com/jlp-photography
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
