Hibs’ Head Coach Jack Ross admitted that he was ‘angry’ rather than frustrated with the manner of defeat to St Johnstone at Hampden Park this evening and he admitted that his players fell short of the ‘guts heart and drive’ needed in the last 35-minutes of the game.
Hibs dominated for first-half and should have been in front but fell behind to a sucker punch in the 34th minute and went in at the break a goal down.
Two early goals by St Johnstone after the restart ended the game as a contest and Ross was angry at the lack of response from his team
Speaking to Premier Sports after the final whistle Ross said: “I’m angry. We have given up the opportunity to get to a final far too meekly. Things won’t always go your way so when you play well and dominate the first half and find yourself behind it’s important that you retain that discipline and strength of character to keep doing the right things and we didn’t do that the second-half.
“And then our reaction to going further behind was not good enough and too meek so we have no complaints with the end result.
“It’s not a frustration, it’s an anger because we have to be better than that.
“We’ve defended set pieces very well all season. Its not been an achilis heel for us in any way. Statistically we are one of the better teams but this evening we didn’t and that gave St Johnstone a foothold in the game and something to hold on to and made the half-time scoreline not a fair reflection of how the game had went but it’s the thing that matters in football.
“We had to then make sure we didn’t give up similar opportunities in the second half. We did that early in the half and then so prior to that the performance was good but after that it was nowhere near good enough and way below the levels you need to have and that strength of character and resolve to make sure you battle your way through periods when things aren’t going your way and we didn’t do that today.
“There was a lot today about guts and heart and drive. You have got to have that. It gets overlooked a little bit in the modern game with so much focus on other things but you have got to have that and we fell short in that last 35-minutes of the game.”
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.
