Hogg confesses naivety

The chasm in experience between a side which has featured in the competition over the past three years, reaching the last 32 on their two previous European excursions, and one consisting of many players in only their second season in top flight football was all too evident in the Meteor Stadium.

And 20-year-old Hogg, with little more than a handful of SPL games to his name, admitted he had fallen victim to the wiles of Dnipro's Sergey Kornilenko as the Belarussian striker won a penalty which ended Hibs' hopes of progressing to the money-spinning group stage.

The former Ipswich Town kid admitted putting his arm on the Dnipro star as he fought to stop him cashing in on a superlative pass from the outstanding Sergiy Nazarenko - but insisted he had immediately removed it.

The challenge was one which wouldn't have brought a second glance from most British referees, but it was enough to send Kornilenko crashing to the turf, convincing Austrian referee Fritz Stuchlik to point to the spot.

Oleg Shelayev's conversion put the Ukrainian outfit on easy street, 3-1 ahead at the interval and able to take advantage of Hibs' need to chase goals by claiming two more of their own through substitute Olexandr Melashchenko.

Today Hogg revealed he'd been stunned by the decision of Stuchlik - who also awarded a controversial penalty a couple of years ago which saw Lithuania sink Scotland's Euro 2004 hopes.

He said: "To me personally it was a soft penalty. I had a hand on him but moved it right away but once there is contact the boy is always going to go down.

"I was very surprised when he gave it, it was a disappointing moment."

And Hogg questioned whether Mowbray's players were perhaps "too honest" when they found themselves in a similar situation, citing an instance when substitute Steven Fletcher was held before turning to fire a shot into the net only to have his effort ruled out for offside.

He said: "The guy was all over Steven and he had to shake him off. Had it been one of their players he would have gone down immediately."

Like his team-mates Hogg was bitterly disappointed to exit the UEFA Cup, declaring that the final scoreline wasn't a true reflection of Hibs' efforts.

But amid the disappointment, he insisted it had been a great experience and one which everyone at Easter Road was desperate to repeat.

He said: "We'd like to have gone further this season but now we just want to get back into Europe. Everyone wants to play on that stage."