Hibs defend Rangers gameplan despite dreadful afternoon at Ibrox - but change may be required for Celtic visit

Hibs will want to forget all about Saturday’s trip to Ibrox in a hurry.

On the pitch, they were completely outclassed by Rangers, losing 4-0 in a match where they barely threatened. And off the pitch, some of their fans were sorely lacking in class after they daubed the seats in the away end with messages and graffiti that mocked the Ibrox disaster in 1971. Hibs quickly condemned the behaviour of such vile fans and vowed to do all they can to ban them.

This was Hibs’ first defeat under manager Nick Montgomery. The ex-Central Coast Mariners manager has received warm plaudits for the attack-minded way his team approach matches but in hindsight, perhaps playing 4-4-2 with four out-and-out forwards in Govan was an error. Hibs had a half-chance to open the scoring at 0-0 when Paul Hanlon’s close-range effort was blocked but after that, they were ineffective. Rangers pressed them high and forced mistakes in dangerous areas of the pitch. The two central midfielders of James Jeggo and Joe Newell were too easily overpowered and passes out from the back were not accurate enough.

Montgomery stayed true to his pre-match word that he would not tweak his system for facing Rangers. After such a comprehensive defeat, it will be interesting to note how Hibs approach their next match, at home to defending champions and Premiership leaders Celtic. There was a certain element of naivety around how Hibs played given Rangers are so strong at home and the players and fans were buoyed by the occasion marking Philippe Clement’s first game as manager.

Hibs' Jordan Obita, left, and Will Fish trudge off the Ibrox pitch after the 4-0 defeat by Rangers.

"We're going to have to look back at the game this week and see where we went wrong,” said defender Will Fish. “But we've got a big few weeks coming up so we can't dwell on it. We need to use it as some motivation and get back on the training pitch and put things right.

"We want to play football and play out from the back, and that's how it is. If you make mistakes against Rangers, you are going to get punished. That happened, we weren't good enough defensively. I do think we genuinely stuck to the gamelan and tried to play out.

"We were five, six games unbeaten before that. Everyone is buying into the manager's new style of play. I think in a few more weeks, we will be even better. The staff are unbelievable at the technical side of the game, how they want us to play It's about us players buying into that and I'm sure going forward we will be successful.

Montgomery’s message to the players in the wake of the defeat was simple. "Don't get too down about it,” revealed Fish. “We've got a big few weeks coming up. Just use it as a learning experience for going forward.”

The biggest education will come from the errors. Abdallah Sima’s opener for Rangers was a good finish, but the all-important second goal from Nicolas Raskin on the stroke of half-time – which Hibs felt ought to have chalked off for a foul when Joe Newell was too-easily dispossessed – was a 25-yard daisycutter that David Marshall appeared slow to react to. The second-half was a non-event for Hibs, with Sima and Cyriel Dessers netting further cheap goals.