Hibs man mystified by series of events against Dons

John RANKIN today confessed to being more than a little mystified as to how Hibs found themselves four goals down to Aberdeen after barely an hour despite having almost twice as many shots at Dons goalkeeper Mark Howard.

Although goals from Colin Nish and Sol Bamba prevented the Easter Road outfit suffering their biggest defeat of the season, it was, nevertheless, a bitterly disappointing outcome for new Hibs boss Colin Calderwood as he made his debut in the away dug-out at Pittodrie.

But, as the midfield star insisted, there's no more accurate saying in football than everything seems to go against you when results are proving more than elusive.

Nish had already seen Howard beat away one shot and Aberdeen youngster Ryan Jack knock a header off his own line before Mark McGhee's side broke away to score through Chris Maguire.

And if proof were needed that Rankin and his team-mates appear to be enjoying little or no luck at the moment, Dons striker Scott Vernon saw his shot take a wicked deflection off Bamba to leave goalkeeper Mark Brown helpless as the ball trickled into his net for a second time.

Stunned Hibs might have been, but even so Rankin himself had a chance before the interval to haul the Edinburgh side back into the game but, again, Howard pulled off an important save.

The Hibs player said: "I should have scored, I tried to pass the ball in at the near post when I should just have smashed it. It was a big moment for us, a goal just on half-time would have given us a lift and might have changed the game against a team which had been on a bad run at home.

"It was a strange game in a way, I thought things were working quite well for us. Colin had a couple of chances, we'd forced a few corners one after the other and then they hit us on the counter-attack. Then they score again with that deflection.

"Had it gone straight through to Mark I'm sure he'd have saved it but, instead, although the ball had no pace on it after it hit Sol, it left him helpless.

"You start to wonder what is going on but even at half-time you are thinking that if we can nick the next goal then we'll be in with a good chance but they score a third right away and again it was a pretty disappointing goal to lose."That strike by Vernon was quickly followed by a fourth, courtesy of another Paul Hartley penalty after Chris Hogg was adjudged by referee Craig Thomson to have up-ended Aberdeen winger Sone Aluko although the Hibs skipper, as defenders always do in such a situation, protested he'd got a touch on the ball.

Headers from Nish and Bamba restored a little pride for Hibs but defeat undid much of the good work of the previous week when a battling win against Kilmarnock had hinted of an Easter Road revival in what, so far, has been a miserable season.

Now, though, Rankin and his team-mates can do no more than look forward, well aware they are in for a tough fortnight with this weekend's trip to Tannadice followed by the first Edinburgh derby of the season before travelling to face champions Rangers at Ibrox.

Rankin, however, insisted Calderwood's players are more than capable of rising to the challenge. The former Inverness Caledonian Thistle star said: "It doesn't get any easier but these are the types of games the players in our dressingroom seem to rise to. I don't think we've had the best of records against bottom six clubs since I came to Easter Road but we rise for the bigger games.

"I don't know why that should be but hopefully we can do so again over the next few matches. I know the fans are looking at the derby as the big one but we have to take it a game at a time and look to take the three points from Dundee United.

"We'd been looking forward to going to Aberdeen as the win over Kilmarnock had given us a massive lift, we'd travelled north hoping to build on that victory by winning again. Now we have to start again, look to put a run together and get ourselves into that top six which is our aim right now."

The departure of John Hughes and the introduction of Calderwood as his successor has obviously been an unforseen detraction but, Rankin argued, Hibs don't have the luxury of giving themselves a few weeks to overcome the upheaval caused by the shift in management.

He added: "We don't really have any time but what better way to learn than through games. You can spend as much time on the training ground as you want but the main lessons you learn are out there on the pitch.

"With a new manager coming in it's level pegging for everyone. The boys that haven't been playing perhaps lift themselves in training because they want to be in the side while those that have been in the team know they have to go again to keep their place.

"So there's been an edge to training with the new manager starting to get his ideas across. We've only had three training sessions under him but he'll have had a good look at us at Pittodrie and I am sure that over the course of this week there will be changes made as we look ahead to Saturday and trying to make it happen for us."