Hibs lost out to Glasgow City at Petershill Park on Sunday despite a battling defensive display.
Emily Whelan netted inside the first minute from range, but the Edinburgh side managed to compose themselves and settle to keep the game within reach until half-time.
An improved second half followed until late strikes from Sophia Maatta and Rammie Noel sealed all three points for City as Hibs pushed bodies forward in search of another late comeback.
After the final whistle Head Coach Grant Scott told Hibs TV that he offered “no excuses” on his side’s performance after failing to turn the game around after the extremely early setback.
“I’m struggling to reflect today. Once again it is disappointing that I don’t think we have got to our performance levels. Now, we can give credit to Glasgow City for that. They were very purposeful in their work today. But I’m disappointed we didn’t get to those levels.
“It’s an opportunity for us to come here and play against a good team. We’ve not done that and let ourselves down a little bit today. It’s one of those moments. We will reflect on it, take learnings from it and move on very quickly.
“We know the venue, it’s not changed all that much. But sometimes you come up against an opponent who is very dominant on the day. We just couldn’t fight our way into the match as we would’ve liked to. No excuses.”
Whelan found the net inside the first minute after slack play in defence allowed the attacker clear sight at goal from range.
“The timing of the goal is ridiculous,” said Scott on the deflating opener. “It’s a mistake, I don’t have to go off at the players because they know they should do better in those moments.
“Against that quality of opponent, it gives you a real task to get back into the game — you’re then chasing and they can control the tempo a bit better.”
While Scott was disappointed by certain aspects of the match, he admits there was not too much wrong with the team’s structure and that the a positive result remained in reach until the latter stages.
“I didn’t feel that we were under a massive amount of pressure. Territorially, the ball was in our half more certainly. But we didn’t get cut open too much.
“The game was competitive and I felt we were in it for long spells.”
Hibs midfielder Ciara Grant added: “Conceding an early goal was not the ideal start but these things happen.”
“We held out to half-time and we knew we were not having a good game. We had a good chat and played a bit better in the second half. But we concede sloppy goals.
“That’s a few sloppy goals we’ve given away in the last few games, so there are things we need to work on.
“The league is getting more competitive and teams are getting better; the top five or six teams are so competitive now that if you make a mistake in the backline teams are going to punish you.
“I’m just really disappointed with how we conceded today.”
Hibs head to Ochilview to take on Queen’s Park in the Sky Sports Cup.
Grant continued: “It’s a cup game, so it’s a nice break from the league maybe. For us, it’s about reflecting on this game here.
“We conceded against Queen’s Park last week too, which just shows if you make a mistake across the league you will concede.”
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.
