Hibs’ Head Coach Jack Ross praised the opposition last night for making it difficult for his team but insisted that they deserved the trip to Hampden next month.
Goals from five different players Adam Jackson, Scott Allan, Greg Docherty, Stephane Omeonga and Jamie Gullan secured a comprehensive victory for Ross’s men over Inverness Caledonian Thistle and although Carl Tremarco and Nikolay Todorov netted for the visitors who finished the match with 10 men following the dismissal of Brad McKay the result was never in doubt.
Hibs played some superb attacking football from the word go and could well have won by a larger margin.
Martin Boyle in particular was unplayable at times and within the opening 20-minutes three Inverness players had been booked for fouls on him.
Boyle himself was controversially shown a yellow card after he appeared to have been brought down by Mark Ridgers in the opening minutes. The striker protested his innocence and TV replays were inconclusive.
After the game Ross praised the opposition and said: “You look at the scoreline and, although I think we deserved to win, it was far from comfortable,” added Ross. “It was tough and competitive.”
One problem Ross will have to deal with is who takes the next penalty. Last night Paul Hanlon and Marc McNulty, who missed a spot-kick against Livingston at the weekend debated who should take the penalty awarded after the striker was fouled inside the area with the score at 0-0.
Hanlon won that argument but his effort was saved by Mark Ridgers.
Hibs have now missed three successive penalties but Ross isn’t greatly concerned.
He added: “I genuinely didn’t see them arguing about it but they were still having a chat at half-time. I’m OK with that, we’ve got players who are hungry for success.
“I’ve always been relaxed about it [penalty takers] as a manager – maybe I shouldn’t be because we’ve missed three in a row.
“You have to feel good about it on the park at the time and the three who have taken them have all felt good.
“Paul [Hanlon] is a good footballer – technically very good – and better than most in the squad when it comes to striking the ball.
“We’re just going through one of those periods and hopefully we score one soon and put it to bed.”
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.
