Hibs 'need to refocus and learn' in wake of heavy defeat by Celtic

Paul Hanlon has promised Hibs will learn from the 6-1 defeat by Celtic, admitting that the players can’t just “brush it under the carpet”.

Lee Johnson’s men, who sit third in the cinch Premiership table, were comprehensively beaten by the reigning champions, with errors collectively and individually costing Hibs dear.

The manager called his team “timid” in the aftermath of the win and questioned his players’ psychology, and now Hanlon is braced for a difficult debrief as to what exactly went wrong at Celtic Park.

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“It was a poor performance from us,” said a downbeat Hanlon. “When you come here you can’t give away early goals. We did that and it put us on the back foot and them on the front foot. It made it a very difficult afternoon. It’s hard to pout a finger on what exactly went wrong but we probably didn’t put enough pressure on them around our box and didn’t get enough contacts with putting tackles in and things looked that.

Hibs' Paul Hanlon and David Marshall are left dejected by Giorgios Giakoumakis' goal to make it 2-0.Hibs' Paul Hanlon and David Marshall are left dejected by Giorgios Giakoumakis' goal to make it 2-0.
Hibs' Paul Hanlon and David Marshall are left dejected by Giorgios Giakoumakis' goal to make it 2-0.

“There was a lot of hard work from everyone to shuffle into positions but we weren’t really affecting anything once we got there. We’ll have a big debrief about it and go over the goals and all of the other aspects of the game that we need to improve on. It’s a learning experience for a lot of the younger lads. We’ll all learn individually and collectively.

“We can’t just brush it off. We’ve got a big fan base and there’s a lot of pressure on us in terms of expectancy. We’ve got a big game next week coming up now. We always need a debrief to look at what we could do better no matter who the opposition is. At the end of the day, teams will come here and have tough afternoons like we have but we need to go back and go over every goal and every reaction in the game and see how we can all improve.

“We were in a really good place, confidence wise and performance wise just going back a couple of games. We’ve hit a wee bump in the road now with two defeats. We need to refocus, learn from what went wrong on Saturday and try to get back top where we were in terms of confidence and performance levels.”