Hibs’ Head Coach Jack Ross heaped praise on striker Christian Doidge who scored the winning goal in last night’s victory over Dundee United at Tannadice which resulted in the club moving three points clear at the top of the table.
Hibs have won their opening three league games for the first time since season 1974/75 when Eddie Turnbull’s wonderful side thrilled Scottish football and fans have been quick to point out that victory over Motherwell at Easter Road on Saturday equal rivals Hearts’ total number of wins from last season in only two weeks.
After the final whistle Ross said: “He’s (Doidge) a massive asset for me. He’s a brilliant boy, really, really humble and down to earth. If anything, he probably sometimes doesn’t appreciate how good he is and what he has done in terms of the goals he has scored.
“We are trying to grow that in him. He is so unselfish in his work and he has scored goals consistently for me since I came to the club in November. He’s made a massive impact in my time here. He’s a big asset.”
The game lacked the free-flowing football displayed against Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena last weekend but Ross pointed out that his defenders have yet to concede a goal from open play this season.
He added: “I would have preferred it to have been more like Saturday, because I could have been more relaxed late in the game but we knew it would be a tough one. Sometimes on the back of a win like Saturday, you get that.
“We had to dig it out and there wasn’t much in the game. We defended really, really well. And we took the opportunity because we have players who can do that.
“They’ve been terrific defensively over the course of the three games. We haven’t conceded from open play yet. Chris Burke’s free-kick on the opening day of the season was remarkable, and then it was a penalty on Saturday against Livingston.
“So in open play we’ve yet to concede and limited teams to few opportunities. That is brilliant for us because we got a lot of criticism for our defending last year.
“It’s still early but a lot of the work we’ve done is bearing fruit. They can take a lot of confidence from that.”
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.
