Joe Newell happy with 'drastic' change under Hibs boss Nick Montgomery - 'fans are starting to come on board'

Hibs brave approach is the right one despite 4-1 defeat at Celtic, insists midfielder

Hibs midfielder Joe Newell (right) applauds the travelling fans after the 4-1 defeat at Celtic Park. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

Hibs midfielder Joe Newell feels they will ultimately enjoy the benefits of their expansive approach despite a sore night at Celtic Park.

The Easter Road side lost 4-1 at Parkhead on Wednesday but got a loud ovation from the travelling fans after showing an enterprising display and the bravery to pass the ball out from the back.

Manager Nick Montgomery is keen to take that approach into every game and Newell feels they can learn from the experience against the cinch Premiership champions in Glasgow.

"There are different ways to play football obviously," Newell said. "Teams will go to Parkhead and sit behind the ball. Motherwell did that the other week and got a draw and fair play to them.

"But we are not going to do that. Since the gaffer has come in he has been very clear on how he wants us to play and we are all together as a club going forward.

"The fans are starting to come on board to it now. I think they are appreciating it.

"There will be lessons from Tuesday night, but it is about staying with our philosophy and our beliefs. Hopefully further down the line we will go to Parkhead, play the same way and get results.”

The defeat had little impact on fifth-placed Hibs' attempts to climb the table with Hearts and St Mirren also losing.

"The manager has only been here two or three months, not that long really. We haven’t had a pre-season with him, there has been a lot of games," Newell said.

"It will take time, it will not happen overnight. But I think the change you have seen already has been quite drastic. I have felt it personally playing in it.

"Not many teams will go to Parkhead and try and play like we did. We obviously lost, but we won’t go away from what we are doing and the manager won’t want us to do that. It’s good. When it comes off, it is really good to watch.

"For me personally I prefer it to your old school lump it up the pitch style. It is a work in progress, but we will carry on and won’t change from it.”

Newell insists the defeat to Celtic will not derail what has been a positive past few weeks for Hibs.

“We’ve been brilliant lately" he added. “There’s no doom or gloom, it’s not a big disaster or anything. It is a night we will look back on and analyse where we went wrong and what we can learn from. But we are in a good place. We have got a massive game on Saturday [at Livingston] and we have got huge fixtures coming up before the break that we are going to try and stamp our authority on.

“We are at a football club where every game is huge. We went to Parkhead fully expecting to be competitive and try and win the game. We didn’t go there to roll over, we never would do. Every fixture for us is huge if we want to be where we want to be at the end of the season. The games before Christmas and the derby after Christmas are real opportunities for us. We will learn from last night, look at where we went wrong and take the positives.”