John McGinn’s ‘wonder goal’ was straight off the training ground

Hibs’ midfielder John McGinn insists that results are more important that performances at this stage of the season and joked that it took a ‘wonder goal’ from himself to secure the three points at Palmerston Park which moved the club eight points clear at the top of the Championship.

McGinn appeared to join Lewis Stevenson in defence when Hibs won a corner on the right, then when all his team mates ran to the front post, James Keatings floated the ball over their heads and the unmarked McGinn volleyed the ball into the net to the delight of the large travelling support behind the goals.

The ball took a deflection off a Queens’ defender, but McGinn believes that it was going in regardless.

The Scotland international revealed that the move had been planned on the training ground the previous day.

Hibs now face Ayr United who beat them earlier this season at Easter Road, scoring two goals after Marvin Bartley was wrongly sent off.

Speaking after the game to Hibernian TV, McGinn said: “At this stage of the season it doesn’t matter how you perform, it’s all about getting the three points and it was a ‘wonder goal’ to make sure that we got it.

“The gaffer (Neil Lennon) Parks (Garry Parker) and grant (Murray) spend a lot of time on set pieces. We do it on a Friday before the game and we caught them off guard.

“All credit for them for coming up with the set play and a great ball from Keatsy (James Keatings) to put it on a plate for me so it wasn’t a difficult task when it was that good a ball.

“The ball took a deflection but it was going in. sky Sports have tried to nick my other one against Queen of the South so hopefully I’ll manage to keep this one.

“We can’t get carried away but it’s nice when teams around you drop points and the gap gets bigger. We have to focus on ourselves and play the way we have been playing and respect the other teams. It’s always going to be a challenge at the top so we have to be on our toes starting against Ayr United next week.

“We all know what happened when Ayr came the last time and that’s in the back of our minds.

“We need to keep the momentum going and if we win the last 14 games then nobody is going to catch us.

“We have the quality in important areas of the pitch. We could have won the game by more and that’s something we have to work on. The decision making in the final third wasn’t great but everything up to that was superb

“We took a lot of pressure in the last 10 minutes but we dealt with it well. That’s what we have to do to win trophies.

“I felt good up until the last 3 or 4 minutes then I felt as if I had been hit by a bus but it was good to get the minutes in and I’m glad to be back so early and hopefully I can get back to top form soon.”