Hibs’ Head Coach Alan Stubbs described yesterday’s victory over Alloa Athletic on the artificial surface at the Indodrill Stadium as ‘pivotal.’
A Scott Allan free kick midway through the first half secured the vital three points and although he agreed that the former West Bromwich Albion midfielder’s strike was magnificent, he wants to see him score more goals.
Stubbs also revealed why Liam Fontaine was on the bench, a decision that surprised many in the away end.
After the game Stubbs told Hibs TV: “I spoke to the players before the game and tried to keep away from the act of how tricky a game this could have been today.
“It was a real stumbling block because of the surface and the ground and unfortunately it’s a leveller and we had to keep that away from the players.
“It’s not their preferred surface to play on but the most important thing is that we have come away with three points. I actually believe that when you look across a season, this result wlll be quite pivotal.
“If you look at Alloa’s position and the results that they have had at home this season, there haven’t been big scoring games. Teams have won by the odd goal or so and I think that it tells you how far we have come to have won the game one-nil.
“We have scored and kept a clean sheet and Mark (Oxley) hasn’t had anything to do in the game.
“At one-nil you are never comfortable but I was pretty relaxed on the sidelines just to make sure we did the job professionally.
“Scott (Allan) needs to do that more and add more goals to his game which is important to him. He’s scored two but I think Scotty is the type of player who could get up to ten goals rather than two at this stage of the season.
“He needs to shoot more from the positions he finds himself on the pitch. He can be the difference and today he proved that.
“Fonts (Liam Fontaine) has had a little bit of a tight thigh and we had a discussion yesterday about today and when we took into account everything including the surface here we decided not to take a risk and if we really needed him, that’s why we put him on the bench. We didn’t need him and he should be fit for next week.
“I thought that Keith (Watson ) was exceptional and Fraser Fyvie was good as well. The lads along the back line with Mark put a performance in today that won us the game.
Hibs are now four points clear of Rangers in second place although the Ibrox side do have three games in hand.
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.
