With Neil Lennon banned from the dug out it was up to his assistant Garry Parker to face the media after yesterday’s 2-0 victory over Partick Thistle and he didn’t hold back, describing the first half performance as the worst 45 minutes he had witnessed since his arrival at the club.
He did concede however that the three points were all that mattered in the end and he is determined to finish as high up the table as possible.
With Rangers dropping points at Motherwell, Parker is aware that victory over Hamilton at Easter Road on Tuesday night would move Hibs to within one point of the second placed club and with Aberdeen having to tough away games before the split anything can happen.
Despite not being satisfied with the overall performance, Parker took time out to praise the contribution of Martin Boyle whose speed caused Thistle problems all afternoon and who set up the opening goal for Jamie MacLaren.
After the game Parker told Hibernian TV: “That was probably the worst 45 minutes I’ve witnessed since I’ve been here. We had nothing. It was 35 minutes before Dylan (McGeouch) had a shot but at the end of the day we got the three points and that’s all that matters.
“At half time the players knew themselves and we knew that we couldn’t play any worse in the second half. We knew that we had to win the 50/50s and move the ball quicker.
“The second half was a big improvement although I’m still no pleased with the performance overall.
“With the pace that he (Martin Boyle) has, he hurts people. Efe (Ambrose) has played the ball down the wing and he is the only person in the league who would have caught the ball then it was a good ball across goal and a good finish.
“If we can get him involved more, with his pace he can cause teams problems.
“It’s funny. We did set pieces yesterday and I said to Paul (Hanlon) that I thought he would score today. It was a good goal and a good header and we needed that as it gave us a bit of a leeway.
“We had a meeting at the start of the season asking where we thought we would finish and they said top six. We are in fourth now with a lot of football to play and we want to finish as high as we possibly can.
“If we win our game in hand we are a point behind Rangers and Aberdeen have to go away to Motherwell and Hearts before the split so it’s wide open.
“Tuesday night (against Hamilton) is massive for us. We need three points no matter what.”
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.
