Cowdenbeath would have defeated us, says Hibs boss Neil Lennon

Hibernian head coach Neill Lennon questioned his players character. Picture: SNS/Craig Foy

The Blue Brazil currently sit bottom of League Two with one league win all season but Lennon had no qualms that they would have bettered his Hibs side, questioning his players character.

Lennon has just watched his side lose 4-1 to Aberdeen in a one-sided game at Pittodrie.

“We were so abject that Cowdenbeath would beat us today, comfortably,” he told the BBC.

“We were well beaten. They were the hungrier team, more motivated team. (They) wanted it more, earned the right to play, did everything far, far better than my team today and that is unacceptable from my players.

“As a manager you always have to take responsibility but my players need to look at that today. They were abject, they gave up. They lacked character, they lacked quality, they lacked physical and emotional strength today. That is a really hard lesson to learn.

“There were so many senior players off the boil, I could have made 11 substitutions at half time, I made two but it didn’t get much better; by that time the game was gone from us by then.

“It looked to me as if some of them didn’t want to be out there today.”

Lennon did not seek any answers from his players after the performance.

“It is simply a case of me talking,” he said. “You are not going to get an answer. They are all staring, looking at their feet and they’ll mumble away in the background and they’ll deflect but they all have to take collective responsibility. It’s not good enough.

“As soon as the first goal went in we capitulated completely and I’ve not seen that in the team in a long, long time if at all and there was no spark, no inspiration, no individual performer out there who tried to get us back in the game.”

The Northern Irishman did however praise defender Efe Ambrose who was taunted by Aberdeen fans throughout the game and it was his mistake which allowed Gary Mackay-Steven to put Aberdeen 3-0 ahead before the interval.

Lennon said: “(Efe) Ambrose has taken a lot of criticism and people make fun of him, he’s the least of my worries today. He’s the only one who tries to take responsibility on the ball, the rest of them played their own game. Some of them hid, some of them didn’t want to know today and it’s totally unacceptable.”