Hibs’ Head Coach Alan Stubbs has praised his players and is delighted to have picked up a valuable three points against Morton on Tuesday even though he admitted the performance was not the best.
After Saturday’s League Cup semi-final victory over St Johnstone and with next Sunday’s derby on the horizon, Stubbs knew it would be difficult to keep the team focussed on what he described as the most important game of the three.
He also revealed that he will have to assess the extent of the injuries to Liam Fontaine and Fraser Fyvie before selecting his team the Hearts’ game.
Speaking immediately after the game to Cliff Pike of Hibs TV he said: “You’re never comfortable, but I feel that the pressure we were under was caused by ourselves which was the frustrating thing for me.
“In general terms our usage of the ball in the final third, not so much the middle third, but in the final was a little bit sloppy and we didn’t take advantage of the positions we were in at the time. I’ve got to be honest, the game should have been more comfortable than what it was.
“The goal will do Anthony (Stokes) the world of good to get a game under his belt tonight and he will improve a lot for it, but I’ve got to say that coming up to this week, a lot of people were focussing on the fact that we only had two games this week and not three.
“This game was the most important because the league is our priority and this is what we want to achieve most.
“The fact that we have got the three points is great and I am delighted. We’ve got minutes under players belts but it wasn’t the fact that we made a few changes that was the reason for tonight, but we just should have been a bit better.
“There were some individual performances that were very good tonight. I thought Darren McGregor was very good and I thought Dylan (McGeouch) was very good and then when Paul (Hanlon) came in stepped in and did his job but overall I can’t have anything other than praise for the players. I knew it would be difficult tonight after the highs at the weekend and they have done it again.
“Fonts (Liam Fontaine) felt a little bit of tightness and with him knowing his body he stopped right away which from our point of view is a real positive because if he had carried on you are probably looking at 4-8 weeks out but now we will just see how it is and he’ll have a chance for the weekend.
“Fraser is more of a concern as we don’t know with him. He got a knock on his knee and he is a it sore at the moment.”
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.
