New Hibs signing Jair Tavares says work permit waits aren't an excuse for the team not to be safely through to the Premier Sports Cup last 16.
The Portuguese winger has signed for the Easter Road club from Benfica and made his debut in Wednesday's poor 1-1 draw with Morton in Group D at Easter Road, a result that all but put them out a competition they reached the final of in December last year. Their exit was confirmed by Rocky Bushiri playing while supposed to be suspended and a 3-0 defeat being inflicted upon them as punishment.
Tavares, Elie Youan, Momodou Bojang and Marijan Cabraja have all came or are coming through the work permit process which has meant not being able to get started straight away at Hibs. For their Portuguese recruit, it's not a get-out clause: "It doesn't affect nothing. There are more players with quality here, so we have to trust each other and that's it.
READ MORE: Three things we learned as Hibs Premier Sports Cup hopes dangle by a thread after Morton draw
"The wait was a bit frustrating, but now I'm in and I'm on. Now that I'm here I just want to enjoy every moment I'm on the pitch with my team, with the group, that's it.
"Scottish football is so different compared to Portuguese football. I'm here to improve, I'm here to learn. Everyone else is here to learn too. So we just need to think about the next games and improve."
Tavares was happy enough with his own personal performance during a debut display but is aware that as a team, things have to get better ahead of Premiership action beginning against St Johnstone on July 30th.
He added: "We know the mistakes that we made. We know the first half wasn't the best. Now we just have to keep improving. The season isn't over and there's a lot of games to play.
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"We have a lot of chances to prove we aren't the team we were on Wednesday. Hibs is a historic club here in Scotland. We have to take that responsibility.
"We just can't disappoint the fans. We just have to think forward to the next games. We made some key mistakes that we can't make any more because we don't have time for this.
"We know that we are a good team. We can do better than we did. We have to forget this game and think about the next ones."
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