Hibs’ Head Coach Alan Stubbs has warned his players that their performances may leave him looking to make changes to his starting XI.
The Easter Road side have lost four consecutive league games and now instead of looking toward catching Rangers, they are now fighting for second place with Falkirk.
The ‘Bairns’ sensationally came back from 2-0 down at home to beat Rangers 3-2 and with Hibs losing to Raith Rovers the following day, the gap between the pair now sits at 6 points although Hibs do have two games in hand.
The duo meet at Easter Road on 12th April in a game that could decide who finishes second.
Although Stubbs blamed his defenders for both goals he also criticised others for not taking chances. Although he did not mention Jason Cummings by name, he was clearly referring to the youngster who missed an open goal from two yards.
Speaking to Hibs TV immediately after the game on Saturday night, Stubbs said: “There are no excuses. The reason we lost the game is that we didn’t defend properly and I must say that there are a few of them putting themselves under real pressure to be left out of the team at the moment.
“We have contributed significantly to our downfall. we’ve not defended direct balls. The first goal was a straight forward free kick down the middle.
“We were in wrong positions and then you are trying to cover yourself to get back into position because you are on the wrong side and the ball got a slight deflection off one of our players but from a defensive point of view, it is just a poor goal all round.
“We spoke about it at half time about staying with our men and not losing runners and what happens? We lost the runner and don’t deal with the second phase of the corner. That was probably a summary of the game.
“Then at the other end we have missed gilt edged chances which I am afraid you just can’t miss.
“You can’t keep standing here and saying we’ve had this chance and that chance but the simple matter of fact is ‘Do your jobs’ to defend and keep clean sheets and to score doors.
“We just did not do that. there is no point looking for excuses all the time. If you want an excuse you will find one.
“I’ll defend the players all day long but when they are not performing and they keep making the same mistakes, I can’t defend them. I’ll never individually criticise anybody but as a team and individuals we need to do better.”
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.
