Christian Doidge ended his 15-game goal drought as Hibs came from behind to claim a 1-1 draw at the Tony Macaroni Arena on Saturday and revealed that his celebration was one of relief rather than happiness.
Hibs fell behind to a Craig Sibbald goal midway through the first-half then a great piece of tenacity from teenager Josh Doig managed to steal the ball from Nicky Devlin who was attempting to steer Paul Hanlon’s pass out for a goal-kick.
The ball landed at Doig’s feet and his shot on the turn beat Robbie McCrorie to even the scoreline.
The goal seemed to lift a great weight from the Welshman’s shoulders and his team mates demonstrated his popularity by mobbing him as he breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Doidge could have grabbed the winner when he got on the end of a superb Martin Boyle cross but superb defending from Devlin prevented the goal.
After the final whistle Doidge told Hibs TV: “It was an extremely difficult game. Anyone who coms here knows that they are in for a really hard fixture.
“We created some good chances I feel, and on another day we could have scored a few more goals.
“We are definitely going away from here with a point gained and are sitting in a nice position so we just have to keep going.
“The boys at the back did great and it was a real team effort. It’s all about first and second balls when you come here and you have to try and be as dominant as you can and I thought we did that well.
“You might have seen with my celebration that I wasn’t all that happy it was more relief. It’s hard as a striker when you are not hitting the back of the net as much as I’d like to but I’ve gone through these spells before and I know I’ve come out the other side so I just have to keep moving forward and try to put a good shift in for the boys which I know the players and the manager really appreciate.
“The gaffer has a lot of one on one chats with the boys and he has spoken to me a lot saying how I’ve been doing well for the boys because I keep putting myself in the right areas and that one will finally drop and I am really happy that it did.
“With Aberdeen dropping points today, that’s one point gained so we have a lot of ‘cup finals’ coming up and the boys will have to be ready. I’m looking forward to Monday and getting back to training.
Jack Ross added: “I’m genuinely delighted for him. It wasn’t a concern for me that he wasn’t scoring because his overall play has been really good in recent weeks. He’s looked bright in training and it’s been coming foe him.
“We saw the reaction from the other players as well. He’s a really popular member of our squad and we are pleased for him.
“He tends to go on streaks as well so hopefully for him that will stand him in good stead in the league and cup before the end of the season.”
“As long as he keeps producing the levels of performance he has done in recent times then great and he has done in the main for me in my whole time at the club, but all strikers want to score and that is how they are judged by a lot of people.
“If he continues to play like that he will score goals because he has done that all through his career and I have every faith that he will continue to do that. We have a lot of big games coming up, a lot of important games but a lot of exciting ones as well.”
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.
