Hibs can learn from harsh loss

The Easter Road outfit looked to be headed for a first victory of the season over Saints - who arrived in Edinburgh without a league goal in more than 1100 minutes of action - when Akpo Sodje scored for the fourth game in succession.

But they were stunned as Liam Craig rose unopposed to head home an equaliser before Kevin Moon scrambled home the winner two minutes into added on time.

The result leaves Hibs trailing seventh-placed Inverness Caledonian Thistle by four points with only three games remaining and today Calderwood insisted the defeat would be "a terrific lesson" for his players.

He said: "Did we deserve to win? Probably not. But did we deserve to lose? Again probably not. We got to a point where we could not keep going at the same level as St Johnstone. They ended up having more power and drive and knowledge of how to work the ball into areas and produce more danger than we did in the final quarter of the game.

"The majority of the better opportunities came from us from half-time to the middle of the second half but the equaliser gave them everything to chase. A point might have been justified but we did not deserve to win because of the way we defended the corner."

Calderwood, though, insisted he was pleased with the performance of 19-year-old David Stephens in central defence and described goalkeeper Jakub Divis has having had a "solid" competitive debut despite the loss of those two goals.

Hibs can learn from harsh loss - Caldo