IT is an accusation that has been levelled at Hibernian long before Joe Newell, or anyone else currently at Easter Road, arrived in Leith. And yet, their trademark naivety remains. How else to explain the way that Saturday’s Viaplay Cup semi-final unravelled for them just moments after being handed a man advantage?
Just three minutes in fact passed between Aberdeen left back Jack MacKenzie being ordered off, and Dons striker Bojan Miovski having the huge green expanse of the entire Hibs half to run into and slip the ball into the net across David Marshall to book his side’s place in the final.
Newell felt he may have been fouled in the build-up to the goal, but the midfielder is also gracious enough to admit that the fault for it lies mainly with the men in green, and not those in black. And he says that such lapses will continue to blight their progress if they don’t learn to be more street smart, particularly when they are facing 10 men.
“I think so, especially in such a high stakes game, at nil-nil and with so much on the line,” Newell said.
“You can call it being street smart, whatever. But it’s something we need to look at as a team.
“I thought we were really good. The first half was a bit cagey from both sides, just kind of sussing each other out.
“We then started the second half really well. I thought we were in control, had a few chances and obviously had the goal disallowed.
“Then they get a man sent off and, I dunno, my initial feeling is that it shouldn’t – but it hindered us a bit.
“They were already getting back in their shape anyway, soaking up pressure, with 11 men. So, with 10 men it’s obviously really hard to break them down.
“But we need to look at that because it’s happened before, under previous managers, a few times. We’ve gone a man up and it hasn’t worked out for us.
“Again, without looking back at the goal, I claimed for a foul initially. I don’t know. If it’s not a foul, then it’s naïve from us to concede a counterattack goal with a man up.
“The ref said he checked for a foul. I was asking him, and he said there was no foul.”
The important thing for Hibs now is to quickly bounce back, Newell says, with the manner of Saturday’s defeat and the way they threw away two points from 2-0 ahead against Ross County just days prior threatening to undermine the generally positive vibes that have permeated Easter Road since new manager Nick Montgomery’s arrival.
They will get a quick opportunity to do just that as they travel to face St Mirren on Wednesday night, but given the way that Stephen Robinson’s men are going, that will be no easy feat.
Newell is looking to use the hurt from Saturday as fuel though to fire them to a morale-boosting win.
“It hurts massively, and the dressing room is devastated, as you can imagine,” he said.
“It hurts more because of the way the game went, we should have come out on top.
“It’ll take a day or two. The game is Wednesday night, so there’ll be no excuses physically or mentally, no chance. We’ll be right and fully prepared for St Mirren, 100 percent.
“We need to bounce back. It’s done now. Of course we’ve got the character to bounce back. You’ve got no choice, anyway. That’s football.
“We’ll come in Monday and have a look at the game, a debrief – and then it’s done, over.
“The full focus is now on two massive comes coming up before the break, St Mirren and Kilmarnock.
“We know we need to get as many points as possible, because the full focus goes back on the league now.
“You can draw on it when you look at the game and how you can improve. The coaching staff and the manager, analysis-wise, are amazing. Probably the best I’ve seen in terms of debriefs and preparation for games, the way they see it panning out.
“In terms of learning from it – what we can do better physically and tactically – we’ll be spot on with that.
“Emotionally, I think everyone has to remember the next time we’re here [at Hampden], how much it does hurt, and use that as motivation.”
