Hibs Head Coach David Gray believes that a lack of quality in front of goal contributed to his team’s disappointing 2-1 defeat to Motherwell.
Apostolos Stamatelopoulos opened the scoring for the Steelmen, before Junior Hoilett got Hibs back on level terms moments later.
However Gray’s men were reduced to 10-men when Nectar Triantis was shown a second yellow card, with Andy Halliday netting a later winner for the visitors.
Speaking to Hibs TV after the game, Gray said: “I could stand and talk about how I thought we were in the first half, creating chances and dominating the game.
“But, as I touched on before the game – our performances have been good, but the results haven’t.
“That has been highlighted again today – if you don’t take the chances and clear-cut opportunities that you create, at this level you will be punished.
“On the flip side, if you don’t show the desire to defend your box and mark your men at set-pieces then you are going to be up against it. Unfortunately, we went on to lose the game because of that.”
“We weren’t good enough in both boxes, with Motherwell scoring from two set-pieces in the second-half.
“It is not as though we didn’t know it was coming, set pieces are a massive part of the game”, Gray continued.
“A lot of Motherwell’s goals this season have come from set-pieces, so we were well aware of that threat and danger.
“We were prepared for it, but when you look at the game as a whole – we didn’t take our chances, their goalkeeper makes some very good saves but we need to put them away.
“You can’t have four or five chances to score a goal – you can say it is good goalkeeping, of course it is – but these are big chances at big moments in the game.
“The longer you don’t take those chances, you are liable to lose one at the end – that is just the way games of football can go at times.
“Listen, I am not shying away from it – we know where we need to be better, and that was clear today again.
“I’ve talked a lot about performances improving, but that all becomes irrelevant – it’s all about results and our results need to improve because where we find ourselves isn’t good enough.”
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.
