Hibs suffered their second successive defeat, losing narrowly to champions celtic at Easter Road this afternoon.
David Gray made three changes to his starting XI following their disappointing night at Fir Park on Tuesday.
Suspended Grant Hanley, Jack Iredale and Dan Barlaser were replaced by Warren O’Hora, Jordan Obita and Miguel Chaiwa.
Record signing Thibault Klidje wasn’t in the squad.
Martin O’Neill made just the one alteration with Kieran Tierney making way for Marcelo Saracchi.
The Celtic team were greeted by their supporters holding up red cards in a protest against the board.
Hibs started on the front foot and Rocky Bushiri made his presence felt in the Celtic penalty box but was unable steer his header on target.
Kasper Schmeichel was called into action to deal with a shot from Josh Mulligan at his near post.
At the other end Hibs defeabce was caught out by a lofted ball over the top as Luke McCowan broke clear but Raphael Sallinger raced from his penalty area and did well to clear the danger.
Moments later a great cross fron Jordan Obita just evaded Kieron Bowie.
In the 13th minute celtic had the ball in the net but Yang Hyun-Jun and Daizen Maeda were both offside.
A minute later Hibs should have taken the lead when Nicky Cadden sent in a tremendous cross but Martin Boyle somehow poked wide from close range under pressure from Saracchi.
Jamie McGrath then tried his luck with a first-time curling effort from near the edge of the box which went inches over the bar.
Celtic full-back Colby Donovan booked for a late challenge on Obita.
Hibs had a scare when Bushiri intercepted a Yang Hyun-Jun cut-back but hesitated and ball away with an ill-advised pass inside his own penalty area but the danger was cleared.
Celtic took the lead in the 28th minute and for the second game running it was down to a defensive error.
The normally reliable Sallinger gave a terrible pass out to Chaiwa standing just outside the area.
The midfielder was dispossessed by Reo Hatate who squared the ball to Daizen Maeda and he slid the ball into an empty net.
Two minutes later Celtic doubled their lead when Yang Hyun-Jun broke down the left and his cross was met by Arne Engels who bravely headed the ball into the net.
McGrath is booked for his desperate challenge which left Engels needing treatment.
Hibs started the second-half in determined fashion and Boyle almost got on the end of a superb Obita cross but Liam Scales just managed to deflect the ball out of the danger area.
But Scales quickly went from hero to zero when he handled an Obita corner and after a VAR check Nick Walsh awarded the penalty.
Boyle calmly slid the ball into the bottom right hand corner to reduce the deficit.
Schmeichel was booked for refusing to hand the ball back to Obita who was also shown a yellow card for trying to wrestle the ball from his hands.
Josh Campbell replaced Obita as Hibs pressed for an equaliser.
With time running out Gray made a triple change for Hibs, with Joe Newell, Dan Barlaser and Elie Youan replacing Boyle, Mulligan and Chaiwa.
Newell received a warm welcome from the Hibs fans as this was his first game back after a long term injury.
Hibs threw everything at the visitors and Chris Cadden had an effort saved by Schmeichel after some good work from Bowie and Celtic hung on for the win.
Hibs Sallinger, C Cadden, O’Hora, Bushiri, Obita, N Cadden, Mulligan, Chaiwa, McGrath, Boyle, Bowie.
Substitutes: Smith, Levitt, Youan, Newell, Iredale, Barlaser, Mitchell, Megwa, Campbell.
Celtic: Schmeichel, Donovan, Trusty, Scales, Saracchi, McGregor, Hatate, Engels, Yang, Maeda, McCowan.
Substitutes: Sinisalo, Nygren, Balikwisha, Tounetki, Kenny, Bernardo, Murray, Ralston, Tierney.
