Hibs’ Head Coach Jack Ross believes that his players’ performance at Ibrox this afternoon demonstrates how far the club has come this season.
Hibs went into the game missing first choice keeper Ofir Marciano, on-form Christian Doidge plus influential midfielders Scott Allan, Kyle Magennis and Jamie Murphy, but he was proud of the performance and claims that the game was Rangers’ hardest this season.
It took a goal from Ianis Hagi midway though the first-half to separate the teams but Hibs were denied two clear penalties as they fought for an equaliser. On the other hand it took three very good saves from Dillon Barnes to keep Rangers to one goal.
Speaking after the final whistle Ross told Sky Sports: “We are trying to grow the mentality of the club that we are never satisfied losing games and I think that’s evident in our record this season so we are disappointed in the changing room because we have not had that feeling often but I think it’s a day to extenuate the positives in my teams performance. I thought they were excellent and that’s probably as hard a game as Rangers have had here in the league.
“To push them as hard as we did is testament to how far we have came. We want to keep going and we want to make sure that we come here in the future and take something from the match.
“I think the way we set up today there was a risk element to it. We knew we would give up opportunities because we are playing against a really good team but we tried to keep two strikers up the park and I think we created good opportunities through that. We maybe didn’t work their goalkeeper enough but we had spells in the game when we were good.
“We should have had at least one penalty. The Ryan Porteous one is a penalty kick. It was difficult for me to see at the time but I have the benefit of watching it again but I don’t think there is any doubt that it was a penalty.
“There was lots for us to be pleased about today. The players’ willingness to play the way we asked them to, their courage and their belief to cause Rangers problems but ultimately we have lost the game so we don’t take pleasure in that but we take pride in large aspects of our performance.
“If we keep taking that forward into our remaining matches we will finish the season in a good place.”
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.
