Hibs’ Head Coach Jack Ross was disappointed in his team’s performance in last night’s 3-0 defeat to Rangers at Easter Road and admitted that Ryan Porteous’ red card was merited.
Following an ill-tempered 90 minutes on an off the park Ross said: “We were a long way short of where we need to be to give ourselves a chance of winning tough matches.
“This was going to be a tough match and obviously when you concede two goals as early as we did and in the manner we did, it becomes hugely difficult to take something from the game.
“We’ve played the top two in the country and they put contact on you, in the best possible way.
“They’re aggressive in how they get after the ball and that’s what you need. That’s overlooked at times. People look at how good football teams are but they do that part well. We were lacking that and we’re going to have to have that on Boxing Day.
Defender Porteous was sent off for a challenge on Rangers Borna Barisic midway through the second half and will now miss the Boxing Day derby with Hearts at Tynecastle.
When asked to comment on the incident Ross continued: “In real time, I am a good distance away from the incident and I’m at pitch level. But I have watched it again and it’s fine, it’s a red card. The pace Ryan goes in at and he goes in high.
“It’s an error of judgment from him but I am not going to hang him out to dry because he is a young man. People say young men make mistakes. You make mistakes all through your life and your career.
“It’s how you react and learn from them, that will be the key thing for Ryan. It about how he reacts because it obviously left us in an even more difficult position in the game.”
“The consequences in the short term made that last part of the game challenging and we had to dig in. The further consequences are that we’ve got Hearts and Livingston and depending on what it’s deemed as he could be missing for both, but having him out for Boxing Day is a blow.
“I like him a lot. It’s not brushing it under the carpet. I’ve spoken to him and will do again. It’s about how he learns from it.”
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.
