Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Lennon plans changes
NEIL Lennon will make changes for the Betfred Cup quarter-finals after being angered by Hibernian’s second-half collapse against Motherwell.
Anthony Stokes capitalised on some slack defending to put Hibs two ahead in the 57th minute after earlier netting a penalty but Lennon admitted his side “went missing” in the final half hour as they eventually drew 2-2.
Louis Moult headed home Craig Tanner’s free-kick from two yards out in the 64th minute and rolled Efe Ambrose to fire home from 20 yards 10 minutes later.
Hibs continued to l ook vulnerable, although they composed themselves in the final five minutes and Stokes came closest to netting a hat-trick with a free-kick.
But head coach Lennon was left fuming with his players for failing to see out the match as they went four Premiership games without victory.
Lennon said: “There will be changes, how many I don’t know. We can’t push the panic button yet because we have been playing quite well.
“We were OK for an hour of the game but as soon as Motherwell score, we seemed to wilt. Instead of going ‘let’s go and get another one’ or see the game out, we don’t do either.
“The second goal John (McGinn) dives in, Efe dives in, Ofir (Marciano) gets beat near post. It’s just unacceptable.”
Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson continued his habit of making influential substitutions with both Tanner and Gael Bigirimana coming off the bench to set up goals.
“We were brave with our substitutions,” Robinson said. “What we have done is put a squad together on a minimal budget, and we have good players. We didn’t have it last year but I look around and we have real options to change it.”